---
title: "Estonian kids are third fittest in the world"
id: "20751"
type: "post"
slug: "estonian-kids-are-third-fittest-in-the-world"
published_at: "2016-09-23T22:09:33+00:00"
modified_at: "2017-02-23T03:58:55+00:00"
url: "https://estonianworld.com/life/estonian-kids-are-third-fittest-in-the-world/"
markdown_url: "https://estonianworld.com/life/estonian-kids-are-third-fittest-in-the-world.md"
excerpt: "According to a research by a team from a Canadian hospital and an American university, Estonian children and youths are third fittest in the world, […]"
taxonomy_category:
  - "Life"
taxonomy_post_tag:
  - "children"
  - "Sport"
taxonomy_post_format:
  - ""
publisher: "Estonian World"
language: "en-GB"
author: "Sten Hankewitz"
author_url: "https://estonianworld.com/author/stenhankewitz/"
---

# Estonian kids are third fittest in the world

![Image](https://estonianworld.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/Kids-Cristi-Sikora-1024x687.jpg)

By  [Sten Hankewitz](https://estonianworld.com/author/stenhankewitz/)
  ·  September 23, 2016  · [Life](https://estonianworld.com/category/life/)
 · 1 minute of reading

### According to a research by a team from a Canadian hospital and an American university, Estonian children and youths are third fittest in the world, or at least among the 50 countries that were included in the study.

An international research team, co-led from the Children’s Hospital of Eastern Ontario (CHEO) and the University of North Dakota, studied the aerobic fitness levels of children and youths across 50 countries.

According to the [study](https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2016/09/160921104324.htm)
, the fittest children live in Tanzania, a country in Eastern Africa. Iceland came second and somewhat surprisingly, Estonia scored third. Norway placed fourth and Japan fifth.

The study involved analysing 20-metre shuttle data, also called the beep test, from 1.1 million kids aged 9-17 years old from 50 countries. The beep test is the most popular field-based test of aerobic fitness levels of children and youth. It is also standardised and commonly used around the world.

Justin Lang of CHEO, the lead author of the study, said that kids who were aerobically fit tended to be healthy, and healthy children were apt to be healthy adults.

The children in America placed 47th, followed by Estonia’s southern neighbour, Latvia. The least fit children, however, live in Mexico.

I

Cover: an Estonian child in a wild nature. Photo by Cristi Sikora (courtesy of VisitEstonia).

## About The Author

![Avatar photo](https://estonianworld.com/wp-content/uploads/local-avatars/15/1707599474-bpfull-100x100.jpg)

[Sten Hankewitz](https://estonianworld.com/author/stenhankewitz/)
Sten Hankewitz is a lifelong journalist and the Executive Editor at Estonian World. Having lived in Estonia, Spain, the UK and all around the US, he now resides in the White Mountains of New Hampshire. He loves to write and besides working at Estonian World, he [writes books](https://estonianworld.com/culture/the-grand-illusion-estonian-worlds-sten-hankewitz-publishes-a-novel-about-growing-up-in-the-soviet-union/)
 and contributes to other outlets. He has strong convictions and shows them unashamedly. You can follow Sten on [Threads](https://www.threads.net/@stenhankewitz)
, [X](https://twitter.com/stenhankewitz)
 and [Facebook](https://www.facebook.com/shankewitz/)
. You can also [email him](mailto:sten@estonianworld.com)
.