A Project of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation

Physical Activity Among U.S. High School Students

Updated September 2020: Fewer than one quarter of U.S. high school students, 23.2%, were physically active for at least 60 minutes on a daily basis, according to the most recent Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance System (YRBSS) report. The YRBSS is a biannual measure of self-reported health behaviors among U.S. high school students released by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Analysis from the CDC concluded that, overall, the “prevalence of health-promoting physical activity behaviors was low in 2019 and either decreased or did not change during the previous 10 years.” Specifically, the percentage of students meeting recommendations for physical activity declined significantly from 2011 to 2019.

The feature below includes national and state by state data on four questions related to physical activity. Other features on the site include additional data from YRBSS on nutrition behaviors and obesity rates.

Use the dropdown to select a state:

1991 1993 1995 1997 1999 2001 2003 2005 2007 2009 2011 2013 2015 2017 2019

United States 2017

Low Physical Education Participation

Did not attend physical education classes on one or more days (in an average week when they were in school)

Physical Activity

Were physically active at least 60 minutes per day on all seven days before the survey (doing any kind of physical activity that increased their heart rate and made them breathe hard)

High Computer Usage

Played video or computer games or used a computer three or more hours per day (for something that was not school work on an average school day)

High Television Watching

Watched three or more hours per day of television (on an average school day).

* Race/ethnicity data for individual states are not shown due to small sample sizes in the population. Note: The CDC uses the term Hispanic in their analysis. All races are non-Hispanic.