Most Romanians don’t get enough exercise, statistics show

Only 11.6% of Romania’s population aged 5 and over said that they do sports weekly or engage in recreational physical activities in their free time, according to data from the National Statistics Institute (INS), quoted by local Agerpres. At the same time, only 8.4% of Romanians over the age of 15 follow a diet.

The INS released the data on April 7 to mark World Health Day.

In terms of physical activity, 92.7% of the resident population aged 5 and over walk for at least 10 minutes a day in a typical week. More than a third of the female population aged 5 years and over (40.5%) walk continuously for 10 to 29 minutes, 5.8 percentage points more than the male population. However, more men (11.1%) choose to walk greater distances (2 hours or more per day) than women (8.2%), the same data revealed.

About 17.6% of the resident population aged 6 and over choose to travel to various places by bike, skateboard, or roller skates weekly.

Out of the total population aged 5 and over, only 11.6% stated that they do sports weekly or engage in various recreational physical activities in their free time, INS said. Most of those who perform such activities are children aged 5-14 years (50.2%) and young people aged 15-24 (20.5%). After this age, the share of people doing sports in their free time decreases significantly, from 11% in the 25-34 age group to 0.3% in people aged 75 and over.

People who did sports, fitness, or various physical activities in their free time dedicated an average of 34 minutes a day to these activities.

The INS data also revealed that only 8.4% of Romania’s population aged 15 and over follow a “proper diet.” Of these, 71.1% follow a low-salt diet, 62.2% follow a low-fat diet, 51.2% chose a low-sugar diet, and 24.5% have turned to a low-calorie diet.

More women (9.8%) than men (6.8%) follow a diet in Romania, the same statistics revealed.

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