In 2022 some 75.7% of the Swiss population participated in sufficient physical activity as defined by national recommendations. This figure has been increasing since 2002 (61.1%), but has levelled off since 2017 (75.3%).
Men (2022: 78.4%) tend to get adequate physical activity more frequently than women (73.2%). The percentage of adequately active people in both genders also increases with educational level: 60.3% of persons with only compulsory education completed meet the adequate physical activity criteria, while the percentage who do so among those who have completed tertiary-level education amounts to 79.5%.
This indicator is part of the Monitoring System Addiction and NCD (MonAM) of the Federal Office of Public Health (FOPH).
Regular physical activity protects against non-communicable diseases and helps in the management thereof. For high blood pressure and other cardiovascular diseases, type 2 diabetes, infectious diseases and back pain, physical activity can have a powerful protective effect.
Regular physical activity positively influences the immune system, mental health, cognitive health (especially thinking skills and memory), sleep, reducing stress, health-related quality of life and general well-being. Active persons also suffer less frequently from neurodegenerative diseases such as dementia (FOSPO et al., 2022).
This indicator was calculated on the basis of data from the Swiss Health Survey (SHS, n2022 ≈ 22 000), and is updated every five years.
It shows the percentage of people aged 18 and over living in private households who are at least irregularly physically active (irregularly active, regularly active or physically fit) and whose activity level therefore meets the national physical activity recommendations. The distribution of physical activity behaviour in the population is also shown.
The indicator is based on a combination of questions about the intensity and the frequency of the physical activities performed. It distinguishes the following five physical activity behaviours:
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