Which region of the United States has the highest percentage of adults who are physically inactive?

Folks in the Garden State could stand to do a bit more gardening, apparently.

Or any kind of physical activity at all.

That’s the message from a new federal report with state-by-state estimates of how many people had engaged in no physical activity or exercise outside of work during the previous month.

In New Jersey, that figure was 28.7%, placing it in the second-worst category out of five, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said. Pennsylvania was not much better, at 24.8%, earning it a spot in the third-worst category.

The CDC figures are drawn from a national survey that asked, “During the past month, other than your regular job, did you participate in any physical activities or exercises such as running, calisthenics, golf, gardening, or walking for exercise?”

By region, the South had the highest prevalence of physical inactivity, at 28%, followed by the Northeast (25.6%), Midwest (25%), and West (20.5%).

Coloradans reported the lowest rate of inactivity, at 17.3%. Worst was Puerto Rico, at 47.7%.

The numbers were culled from survey responses from 2015 through 2018. Nationwide, the level of inactivity has remained fairly stable over the last decade, agency officials said.

But the new analysis revealed stark differences among racial and ethnic groups.

Hispanics had the highest rate of self-reported inactivity, at 31.7%, followed by non-Hispanic blacks at 30.3% and non-Hispanic whites at 23.4%.

The CDC’s summary tables do not include socioeconomic factors that might explain that disparity, such as income or job status.

(Could it be partly that the survey question gave golf as one of the few examples of activity? And that word calisthenics — what is this, 1954?)

By any measure, the numbers are cause for alarm, said Ruth Petersen, director of the CDC’s division of nutrition, physical activity, and obesity.

“Too many adults are inactive, and they may not know how much it affects their health,” she said in a statement.

How to explain New Jersey? It is the most densely populated state in the country, along with more than its share of cars, traffic, and lengthy commutes.

On the other hand, it has easier access to gyms than Pennsylvania, where some rural areas are said to have exercise “deserts.”

Whatever the reason, it is no joke. Being physically active is associated with a lower risk of heart disease, type 2 diabetes, obesity, and some cancers, just to name a few benefits.

Inactivity is thought to play a role in one out of 10 premature deaths in the United States.

Topline

Roughly 25% of U.S. adults are physically inactive, according to a study released Thursday from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control.

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Key Facts

A survey conducted by the CDC and state health departments asked Americans if they participated in activities such as “running, calisthenics, golf, gardening, or walking for exercise,” outside of their regular job in the prior month.

Nationwide, 25.3% of adults answered “no.”

The CDC collected data from 2017-20 from 49 states (New Jersey did not collect data in 2019), the District of Columbia and the territories of Puerto Rico and Guam. 

Puerto Rico adults had the highest level of inactivity at 49.4%, with Colorado the lowest at 17.7%. 

Regionally, adults in the South had the highest level of inactivity at 27.5%, compared to the West’s nationwide low of 21%. 

Hispanic adults were the most inactive racial/ethnic group with 32.1% responding “no,” followed by non-Hispanic Black adults (30%), non-Hispanic American Indian/Alaska Native adults (29.1%), non-Hispanic White Adults (23%) and non-Hispanic Asian Adults (20.1%).

Key Background

 In the survey, the CDC pointed to barriers to physical activity — a lack of safe spaces to exercise, unsafe parks and streets, poor street infrastructure, a lack of time or a lack of social support — as reasons for the racial and ethnic disparities in physical inactivity.

Surprising Fact

 When broken down by year, inactivity nationwide was at its lowest (22.7%) in 2020 since 2011, the earliest year for which the CDC provides data.

Section Title

An August survey that plucked answers from nearly 13,000 people across 139 countries found that the number of people who exercise one to two  times per week increased 88% during the coronavirus pandemic. The survey, which came from the running shoe-review company RunRepeat, also showed a 14% decrease in those who exercise four or more times a week. This contrasts with some surveys from the early months of the pandemic, which found people were exercising less during confinement.

In which region of our country are people less likely to be physically active?

What percentage of the United states is physically inactive?

What percentage of American adults are inactive?

What is the least physically active age group?