Revealed: Where in the world kids are healthiest, according to exercise, sleep and screen time – so where does the UK rank?

African children are the healthiest in the world, narrowly beating those in Europe and vastly outperforming those in the Americas.

This result is from a pooled analysis of data from 33 countries that examined what proportion of children aged three to five are getting enough exercise, sleep and time away from computer, television or smartphone screens.

While Europe, which includes the UK, recorded that just over half of children were getting enough exercise, specific data for Britain alone suggests only a tenth of children are actually getting the recommended level of physical activity. 

Youngsters from Africa had the best overall result with about one in four (23.9 per cent) getting their recommended exercise, screen breaks and sleep.

Europe came a close second, with 23.5 per cent of children reaching this benchmark.

The Americas, which includes the North American countries like US as well as those in South America, had the worst performance with less than one in 10 (7.7 per cent) reaching this level of health.

Children in this region were mostly let down by their sedentary time, periods in which they sit still  —and used as measure of screen time — with only 17 per cent taking enough breaks the lowest proportion of any region analysed.

Coming second worst in overall performance were children in South-East Asia, such as Thailand and Indonesia, (9.1 per cent) followed by those in nations of the Western Pacific, Australia and New Zealand (12.4 per cent).

The analysis, published in the journal JAMA Pediatrics, was conducted by a multi-national team of experts led by those from the University of Wollongong in Australia.

They looked at data collected from just over 7,000 children from 33 nations aged between three to almost five which had been taken between 2008 and 2022.

Children’s exercise levels were measured using activity monitoring devices while screen and sleep time was measured by parental reports.

Experts then looked to see how many children were meeting World Health Organization (WHO) guidelines on child health per global region.

For exercise this included spending at least three hours a day of physical activity of which one hour should be ‘moderate-to vigorous’ like running. There are guidelines the NHS also sticks to.

For screen time the WHO recommended threshold was only one hour per day with young children also aiming to have 10 to 13 hours of sleep. 

While the analysis didn’t look at countries’ individual results specifically a separate WHO analysis published earlier this year suggested British children are far behind their contemporaries when it comes to physical activity. 

This data showed only that 30 per cent of girls and 18 per cent of boys in England are inactive across all age groups surveyed, while the figure in Wales is 27 per cent for girls and 17 per cent for boys.

In Scotland, 21 per cent of girls are inactive, alongside 12 per cent of boys.

For comparison the overall European WHO region result for physical activity in the latest analysis was 53.5 per cent, the middle of the pack of the six regions analysed.

By exercise North and South America has the best combined result with nearly three quarters (72.8 per cent ) of children meeting daily exercise requirement. 

But overall results were concerning, globally less than one in six children (14.3 per cent) are meeting all three recommendations, according to the analysis. 

Things are even worse for girls, with only 12.8 per cent meeting the recommended thresholds compared to 16.8 per cent of boys.

Over a million children had their height and weight measured under the National Child Measurement Programme (NCMP). Nationally, the rate among children in Year 6 stands at over a third, despite having fallen slightly since Covid began

Girls mostly seemed to be let down by exercise levels. Globally under half (41.7 per cent) of girls did enough daily exercise compared to more than half (55.6 per cent) of boys.

The authors noted this could be due to, in general, parents typically offering boys more ‘freedom’ than girls to allow them to play with less supervision.

Overall, the authors said the results, while bound by limitations like sample size and the self-reporting nature of screen use and sleep duration, were concerning. 

‘Early childhood is recognized as a critical window of opportunity for establishing healthy movement behaviour patterns that are important for lifelong health and well-being,’ they wrote.

‘Our finding of a low proportion of children meeting the overall WHO guidelines across countries and regions poses important implications for future population health if no further actions are taken to address this issue.’

Getting enough exercise is well established in improving both physical and mental health, and over the long term, helping ward off health problems like obesity.

Latest childhood obesity data for England shows one in 10 children are too fat by the time they start primary school, rising to about one in four among Year 6. 

Among Year 6 pupils, national obesity fell from 23.4 per cent in 2021/22 to 22.7 per cent. Meanwhile, the proportion of children deemed either overweight or obese also dipped, from 37.8 per cent to 36.6. Both measures are above pre-pandemic levels

Experts have pointed to a lack of exercise, and poor diets high in ultra-processed food, as being key drivers in the UK’s childhood obesity epidemic.

On screen use the authors noted the worst results were recorded in the Americas and theorised this was due, in part, to higher levels of digital device ownership in the region. 

They added that recent reviews of parents’ views of children’s screen time had found many see devices as a necessity in this technological era and that they often used such devices as a distraction or a reward for children.

The authors noted this stressed the importance of educating parents on healthy screen use and establishing boundaries for children’s use of technology. 

Children spending too much time using screens has been linked to host of health and behavioural problems, from poor eye sight to regulating emotions.