Only 7% of Maltese people exercise or play a sport regularly, a Eurobarometer survey has shown.

The Eurobarometer survey asked respondents from different countries on their frequency of exercise or whether they play a sport. It found that 7% of respondents in Malta exercise regularly in 2022, a 4% decrease when compared to 2017.

The survey collected respondents' answers from April 2022 to May 2022.

25% said that they exercise or play a sport 'with some regularity', whilst 37% said that they seldom exercise or play a sport. 31% said that they never exercise. In comparison, the average percentage of those who never exercise or play a sport in the EU27 countries is that of 45%.

63% of the Maltese respondents who said that they never or seldom exercise or play a sport were male. 74% were female.

Maltese people aged 55 and over were the most prevalent group who never exercise or play a sport, with 93% of them being male, and 87% of them being female.

The younger age bracket, which refers to males and females from the ages of 15 and 24, recorded a lesser percentage of people 'never or seldom' exercising or playing a sport -  with a total of 35% of men and 43% of women in this age bracket giving such a response.

Retired persons, manual workers and house persons were among the highest percentages of people who never exercise or play a sport, with 91%, 81% and 84% recorded respectively.

4% of Maltese respondents said that they regularly in other forms of physical activity outside of sports, such as cycling, dancing, gardening and others.

44% of Maltese people said that they spend five and a half hours to eight and a half hours sitting on a usual day, which would include time spent sitting at a desk, visiting friends, studying or watching television. Only 11% of the Maltese respondents said that they spend two and a half hours or less time being sedentary.

The Eurobarometer survey also asked about the time spent doing vigorous or moderate physical activity on days when they engage in such activity. 61% of Maltese said that they spend between 61 to 120 minutes doing vigorous physical activity, whilst 48% of the respondents from EU27 countries said that they do vigorous physical activity for this timeframe.

56% of Maltese people said that they engage in sport or physical activity on the way between home and school, work, or shops. 41% said that they do this at home whilst only 20% said that they engage in physical activity in a park or outdoors.

78% of Maltese people said that they are not a member of any club which is associated with a sport or recreational physical activity. The EU27 countries average recorded a 69% of those who are not a member of any club.

The main motivators to engage in sport or physical activity for Maltese people was to improve one's health (47%), to relax (39%), to improve fitness or to control one's weight, both 37% respectively.

The main reason as to what prevents one from practising a sport more regularly was that they do not have the time. 49% of Maltese people do not have the time to engage in more physical activity, while 41% of EU27 countries gave the same answer.

With regards to the impact the Covid-19 pandemic has had on sport frequency, 38% of Maltese people said that they continued to be physically active, but they did it less frequently. When compared, the EU27 countries recorded a 34% of individuals who continued to be physically active during Covid-19 but did it less frequently.

Only 4% of Maltese people said that there were more physically active during this period. 19% of Maltese respondents said that they stopped being physically active altogether during the pandemic.