Beyond the World Cup: How to Get Latin America and the Caribbean Moving

On June 11, the Estadio Azteca hosted Mexico against South Africa to open the largest World Cup in history. Across Latin America and the Caribbean, screens lit up, schedules were rearranged, and the public sphere began, for the duration of the tournament, to be organized around a ball. We are, by almost any measure, the most football-obsessed region in the world.

We are also one of the most physically inactive ones. Despite being home to some of the world’s most talented players and some of the highly ranked national teams, our individual exercise efforts come up dramatically short. Changing this will require turning the region’s passion for sports into action by investing in physical education, expanding inclusive programs (especially for women and youth), and designing cities that make daily activity the easy choice.

IDB Efforts to Combat Inactivity

For many years now, the IDB has been studying inactivity and ways to get both youth and adults to play sports for healthier bodies and minds. We find that investments in physical education, after-school programs, and better urban planning can go a long way toward getting children and adults off their sofas and smartphones and onto the playing fields. Coordinating these efforts, like a good team, turns strategy into results. We also partner with many organizations to provide thousands of kids in the region with access to sports and technical skills.

The most recent World Health Organization (WHO) data from 2022 show that 36.3% of adults in Latin America and the Caribbean do not achieve recommended levels of physical activity. That is up from roughly 32% in 2016, five percentage points above the global average, and four points above that in the OECD. Panama (57.6%), Costa Rica (49.7%), and Suriname (48.9%) are among the top-ranking nations for physical inactivity in the region. In these three countries, roughly half the adult population, or more, does less than 150 minutes per week of moderate activity.

The picture is worse for the next generation. WHO data show that more than eight in 10 adolescents in the Americas, or 80.7%, do not meet the recommended level of physical activity. And the gap between men and women is larger than in any other region, with female inactivity at 40.6% compared with 30.4% for males. 

The Health Consequences of the Sedentary Life

The consequences of this tendency towards physical inactivity are all too real. The most recent global health estimates show that adult obesity in our region has risen from 13.6% in 1990 to 33.8% in 2023, a near-tripling in one generation. Among children and adolescents, obesity has roughly quadrupled, from 3.4% to 13.4%. In Central America, more than 37% of adults are now obese; in the Southern Cone, 36.7%; and in the Caribbean, 27%.

Obesity is closely associated with cardiovascular disease and type-2 diabetes. A 2023 study in The Lancet Global Health journal estimates that, given current trends, physical inactivity will cost the world's health systems $520 billion between 2020 and 2030, with three-quarters of new preventable disease cases arising in low- and middle-income countries.

Physical inactivity is also hazardous to mental health. It can lead to depression, a leading cause of disability for both men and women in Latin America and the Caribbean, as well as anxiety, a problem from which people in the region are suffering at the highest ever levels.

The good news is that sports and exercise can keep us lean, while helping us reduce stress and kick the blues. Our region has infrastructure for physical activity that many other regions can only envy. Many schools have a soccer field and a gym. Nearly every neighborhood has a pickup game. The question is whether we treat that cultural asset as something to consume passively during the World Cup, or as something to build on for the next 30 years.

Programs for Healthier Bodies and Minds

Building on it means investing in physical education and after-school programs that actually let kids play, not just watch.

We also need better urban planning, the building of cities where it is easy to walk or cycle to school and where public transport opens up a wealth of sports-related activities. And we have to treat physical activity as a public health priority worth of a fraction of the money that we currently spend treating inactivity-related disorders like diabetes, hypertension, and depression.

Let us enjoy the 2026 World Cup and remember that while we sit on couches and watch others run, the region we love is going to keep getting more sedentary, heavier, and sicker unless we turn this moment into action and score real gains in health and well-being. The World Cup reminds us of the opportunities to improve health indicators through sports.