The bar chart shows the amount of time that 12 to 17 -year-olds in Canada spend per week on sport and exercise. It is clear from the chart that girls are less active in their leisure time than boys.
There is a noticeable difference between the percentages of boys and girls who participate in sport for more than an hour three times a week.
About one-third of girls devote over an hour of their time three times a week to active leisure pursuits while this applies to over half of the boys. There is a similar difference between the percentages of very active young people. Almost 1 in 10 boys between the ages of 12 and 17 play sport for an hour at least 6 days a week. The figure for young women is only 1 in 20.
A closer examination of the figures for young people who actually participated in physical activity reveals that the greatest proportion dedicate at least 3 days per week to these pastimes. This is true of about 80 percent of both boys and girls.
The fact that girls generally spend close to 10 percent less time on average on physical activities than boys raises questions about how fit young women are in comparison to young men.