28.4% of young people in Bulgaria aged 16 to 29 never play sport or exercise outside work, according to Eurostat data for 2025. Only Malta and Portugal have a higher share in the European Union.
In Malta, 31.0% of young people are inactive, and in Portugal 28.5%. In Greece, Denmark, Finland and the Netherlands the share is under 3%, so Bulgaria's rate is more than ten times higher than in those four countries.
Eurostat collects data on the health habits of young Europeans: exercise, obesity, tobacco and alcohol. Across the EU, 16.3% of people aged 16 to 29 never exercise outside work. At least once a week, 73.1% of young people play sport, compared with 61.6% of all people over 16.
Young Bulgarians still exercise more than the population as a whole. Among all Bulgarians over 16, 60.5% are inactive outside work. That is one of the biggest gaps between young people and all adults in the EU.
Obesity among young Bulgarians stands at 4.0%, one of the lowest shares in the EU, where the average is 7.8%.
On tobacco, young people in Bulgaria are above the EU average. 18.4% of them use tobacco or related products every day, against 14.6% across the EU, and Bulgaria is among the countries with the highest share.
On alcohol, EU-wide data show more young people who do not drink. The share who have not drunk alcohol in the past 12 months rose from 34.6% in 2022 to 38.9% in 2025.