Check how much physical activity your child gets against the WHO guidelines for ages 0 to 17: minutes of movement, active days, tummy time, stroller time, screens and sleep.
How much physical activity does a teenager need?
Check how much physical activity your child gets against the WHO guidelines for ages 0 to 17: minutes of movement, active days, tummy time, stroller time, screens and sleep.
For ages 5 to 17, teenagers included, the WHO guidelines ask for an average of 60 minutes a day of moderate-to-vigorous activity across the week, with vigorous activity and muscle and bone strengthening on at least 3 days a week each. The calculator below is filled with an example: 45 min a day, 2 vigorous days and 1 strengthening day. Press Calculate to see each gap, then put in your own teen's week.
Parameters
Enter data for calculations
💡 Fill in all required fields to unlock the calculate button
How much physical activity kids need, from birth to 17
A 3-year-old needs 3 hours of movement a day, an hour of it brisk. A 14-year-old needs an average of 60 minutes of moderate-to-vigorous activity a day and three days a week of hard effort and strength work. This kids physical activity calculator checks a typical day against the World Health Organization guidelines for the child's age, covering activity, time strapped into a stroller or car seat, screen time and sleep, and lists every guideline as met or short by how much.
Rating one ordinary day
- Age of the child - six groups, because the guidelines change at 4 months, at 1, 2 and 3 years and at 5. The form shows only the boxes that count for that age.
- Total activity - ages 1 to 4: minutes of any movement in a day, from crawling and walking to running around the playground.
- Moderate-to-vigorous activity - ages 3 to 17: the part that makes the child breathe harder, such as running, cycling, swimming or team sports. For school-age kids, use a daily average over the week.
- Vigorous days and strengthening days - ages 5 to 17: how many days a week include hard effort, and how many include climbing, jumping, gymnastics or resistance exercise.
- Tummy time and the longest restrained stretch - for babies, minutes on the tummy while awake; for children under 5, the longest single stretch in a stroller, high chair or car seat.
- Screen time and sleep - minutes of sitting in front of a screen, and hours of sleep in 24 hours including naps (under 5 only). Every box is optional; then read how many guidelines are met and the table below the result.
The basics behind the numbers
For children under 5, WHO treats the whole 24-hour day as one budget. Time spent moving, time spent sitting or strapped in, and time asleep add up to 24 hours, so more of one means less of another. That is why the guidelines for toddlers include a limit on how long a child sits in a stroller at a stretch, and why screen time counts as sedentary time rather than as a separate topic.
From age 5 the guidelines switch to moderate-to-vigorous physical activity, measured as an average across the week. A child who plays soccer for 90 minutes on three days and walks to school on the others can meet the average without hitting 60 minutes every single day. On top of the minutes, at least 3 days a week should include vigorous activity, and at least 3 should strengthen muscles and bones.
The US guidance lands in the same place. The Physical Activity Guidelines for Americans ask for 60 minutes or more a day for ages 6 to 17, with vigorous, muscle-strengthening and bone-strengthening activity on at least 3 days each. The American Academy of Pediatrics advises against screens other than video chatting before 18-24 months and about 1 hour a day of quality programs at ages 2 to 5, and the American Academy of Sleep Medicine gives sleep ranges that match the WHO ones from 4 months on.
WHO guidelines by age group
These are the thresholds the calculator checks. A dash means WHO sets no limit in minutes for that age, so the value is shown but not rated.
| Age | Activity | Restrained | Screens | Sleep in 24 h |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 0-3 months | several times a day; 30 min tummy time if not yet mobile | max 1 h at a time | not recommended | 14-17 h |
| 4-11 months | the same as above | max 1 h at a time | not recommended | 12-16 h |
| 1 year | at least 180 min, any intensity | max 1 h at a time | not recommended | 11-14 h |
| 2 years | at least 180 min, any intensity | max 1 h at a time | max 1 h, less is better | 11-14 h |
| 3-4 years | at least 180 min, of it 60 min moderate-to-vigorous | max 1 h at a time | max 1 h, less is better | 10-13 h |
| 5-17 years | average 60 min moderate-to-vigorous; vigorous and strengthening 3 days a week each | - | limit it, no cap in minutes | - |
What counts as moderate, vigorous and strengthening
Parents usually know how long their child was outside, but not which box those minutes belong in. The examples below follow the table of activities in the Physical Activity Guidelines for Americans. One activity can count twice: a game of basketball is vigorous aerobic activity and strengthens bones at the same time, so it fills the minutes and one of the three weekly bone days in one go.
| Type | Younger children | Teens |
|---|---|---|
| Moderate aerobic | brisk walking, riding a bike or scooter, swimming for fun, hiking, games of catch and throw | brisk walking, cycling, kayaking, hiking, yard work such as raking or pushing a lawn mower |
| Vigorous aerobic | running, tag and other chasing games, jumping rope, soccer, basketball, swimming laps, martial arts, energetic dancing | running, soccer, basketball, tennis, swimming laps, martial arts, cross-country skiing, energetic dancing |
| Muscle-strengthening | climbing playground equipment or a rope, tug of war, body-weight exercises, some kinds of yoga | the same, plus push-ups, pull-ups and resistance exercises with bands or weights |
| Bone-strengthening | hopping, skipping, jumping, jumping rope, running, games with jumps and quick turns | running, jumping rope, basketball, volleyball, tennis and other sports with jumps or quick changes of direction |
Intensity depends on the child, not on the activity's name. A bike ride to a friend's house is moderate for one 10-year-old and vigorous for another who races up the hill. For the form, count the minutes in which the child was clearly breathing harder than at rest; reviews of PE lessons find moderate-to-vigorous activity in about 40-45% of class time, so a 45-minute class gives roughly 18-20 minutes once instructions and waiting are taken out.
Eight days rated, from a newborn to a teenager
Each row is a day entered into the calculator. The last column is what the result lists under "To work on".
| Child and day | Met | Interpretation |
|---|---|---|
| 0-3 months: 30 min tummy time, 15 h sleep | 2 of 2 | everything met |
| 4-11 months: 20 min tummy time, 90 min in the stroller, 13.5 h sleep | 1 of 3 | tummy time 10 min short, stroller 30 min too long |
| 1 year: 180 min activity, 20 min screen, 10.5 h sleep | 1 of 3 | screens not recommended, sleep 0.5 h too little |
| 2 years: 200 min activity, 75 min in a car seat, 30 min screen, 12 h sleep | 3 of 4 | car seat 15 min too long |
| 3-4 years: 150 min activity, 50 min brisk, 45 min stroller, 90 min screen, 10.5 h sleep | 2 of 5 | activity 30 min short, brisk 10 min short, screens 30 min too much |
| 5-17 years: 45 min a day, 2 vigorous days, 1 strengthening day, 3 h screen | 0 of 3 | 15 min short, 1 vigorous and 2 strengthening days short; screen shown, not rated |
| 5-17 years: 75 min a day, 4 vigorous days, 3 strengthening days | 3 of 3 | everything met, 8 h 45 min a week against 7 h |
| 5-17 years: only 2 h of screen time entered | - | nothing to rate: no limit in minutes at this age |
Connections parents tend to miss
Reading the result
The headline counts the guidelines checked and how many are met, based only on the boxes you filled in. Every row in the table shows the WHO threshold, the child's value and either met or the gap: short, too long, too much or above the range. The tiles turn the daily figures into a week, which is easier to compare with a sports schedule or a screen time report from a phone.
Leave a box empty when you do not know the number; an empty box is skipped, not counted as zero, so a partial day still gives a fair picture of what you did enter. The guidelines describe healthy children in general. A child with a medical condition, a disability or a recent illness may need a different plan, and a pediatrician should set it.
What parents ask about activity, screens and sleep
Related tools
Rest Between Sets Calculator
How long to rest between sets for strength, muscle growth or endurance, for teens who lift too - See the calculator
FMS Score Calculator
The Functional Movement Screen total out of 21, with asymmetries and where to start - See the calculator
Child BMI Calculator
BMI for age and its percentile on the growth charts - See the calculator
Child Growth Predictor
An estimate of adult height from the parents' heights and the child's growth - See the calculator
Child Weight Percentile Calculator
Where a child's weight sits on the WHO growth charts - See the calculator
Beep Test Calculator
The 20 m shuttle run and the PACER test, with norms for ages 8 to 16 - See the calculator
Calories Burned Calculator
Calories from walking, cycling, swimming and other activities - See the calculator
See also
Calculator verified by the LiczGrupa.pl team
Content, formulas and results have been reviewed for accuracy and relevance by our team of specialists.
Reviewed by: Natalia Skrzek