Greeks are no fans of exercise, survey finds
Nearly eight in 10 Greeks do not exercise regularly or pursue any kind of sport, while 53% admit to not even engaging in physical activity in the form of cycling, dance classes or gardening, for example, a recent Eurobarometer survey has found.
Compared to other Europeans, 68% of Greeks said they never exercise as opposed to the 45% average, and 9% said they rarely exercise, against 17% of EU citizens. The only people who scored worse than the Greeks were the Portuguese, with 73% saying they never exercise.
Greeks also come second to last in terms of light to moderate physical activity, with 53% responding “never” and 16% “rarely” when asked how often they cycle, dance, garden, etc. The EU averages in these two categories are 31% and 19% respectively.
The study also found that, contrary to popular belief, the pandemic did not galvanize people into action, but caused 35% of Greeks who were active before the outbreak of Covid to reduce exercising and 14% to give up entirely. The proportion of people who engaged in exercise or physical activity on a regular basis, meanwhile, rose just 2% from the last survey on the same issue in 2017.
Perhaps most alarmingly, the survey of 1,014 Greeks aged 15 and above found that 18% spend more than 8.5 hours a day sitting in a chair; that proportion rises to 37% for 5.5 to 8.5 hours and to 39% for 2.5 to 5.5 hours.
And only 54% of respondents said they had walked for 10 minutes or more four or more times in the week before the survey, against an EU average of 61%. What’s more, 16% said they didn’t have to or feel the need to walk.
Similarly to 47% of EU citizens, 51% of Greeks choose to exercise, when they do, in a park or some other outdoor space, and 44% use the route between home and work to squeeze in some activity, like walking or cycling. At 40%, Greeks who exercise at home are also close to the EU average of 37%, though at 25% they are almost double the EU’s 13% when it comes to exercising at a gym.
