Youth Physical Activity in the Latest National Data
National physical activity figures can help physical education departments understand the context around their assessment work. They describe activity patterns in specified populations and periods. A school fitness assessment answers a different question about performance on a test. Keeping the population, time frame, and measure visible makes these sources easier to interpret together without treating them as interchangeable.
The 2025 high school picture
The CDC's MMWR report on the 2025 Youth Risk Behavior Survey uses nationally representative data for U.S. high school students. Approximately 25% met the aerobic activity guideline: they reported being physically active for at least 60 minutes per day on all seven days before the survey. About 51% met the muscle-strengthening guideline by reporting strengthening exercise on at least three days during that week. About 16% met both guidelines.
These percentages describe different measures. Meeting the muscle-strengthening guideline does not mean a respondent also met the aerobic guideline. The combined figure identifies students meeting both, and should be kept separate from either individual percentage when summarizing the results.
The report also found that 20% attended physical education classes on all five school days. In a different time window, 58% reported playing on at least one sports team during the preceding 12 months. From 2023 to 2025, sports participation increased while attendance at PE on all five school days decreased.
A sports participation figure covering a year and an activity figure covering a week cannot be read as the same description of a student's routine. Likewise, attending PE does not establish the duration or intensity of activity within each class. The reported trends describe participation patterns; they do not establish why those patterns changed or whether a particular school program caused a change.
Younger students
Healthy People 2030 objective PA-09 tracks the proportion of children aged 6–13 meeting the aerobic physical activity guideline. Its most recent listed figure is 22.7% for 2022–23, compared with a national baseline of 25.8% in 2016–17. The national target is 30.3%, and the objective's status is listed as "Getting worse." Its data source is the National Survey of Children's Health.
This figure should retain its age range and data period whenever it is cited. It is not a result from the 2025 high school survey. The target is also distinct from an observed result: it expresses the objective's intended direction, rather than the proportion of children currently meeting the guideline.
Placing the younger-child and high school figures side by side can provide context, but it does not create a single measure for all school-age children. The sources describe different populations in different periods. Any comparison should make those boundaries explicit rather than presenting the figures as a continuous trend from childhood through high school.
Survey data vs. fitness assessment data
Reported activity concerns what students say they did over a stated period. Fitness assessment concerns what a student demonstrates on a specified task. An activity percentage therefore cannot be converted into a shuttle-run score, and a test score cannot establish how many days a student was active. These measures can inform different questions without one replacing the other.
For a department report, a useful distinction is between national context and the department's own observations. Label the survey population and time frame alongside national percentages. Label the assessment and testing occasion alongside local scores. Keeping those descriptions attached avoids treating a national survey estimate as a result for a particular class, school, or student.
Guidelines on the horizon
HHS is developing 2027 Steps and Muscle-Strengthening Guidance as a supplement to the Physical Activity Guidelines for Americans, 2nd edition. The first edition was released in 2008 and the second in 2018. The Federal Register notice states that written comments are accepted through November 12, 2026.
The notice concerns development of step-count and muscle-strengthening guidance. It is an announcement about work in progress, rather than a set of completed recommendations. When describing survey results, retain the definitions used in the survey instead of applying anticipated guidance to figures that were collected under a different reference. That keeps the reported data and the developing guidance clear.