According to some very selective data, Ireland is the fittest country in the world

It’s hardly what you’d call an official ranking, but we’ll take it.

Short of putting a representative group of the population of every country in the world through their paces in a VO2 max test, it’s nigh on impossible to determine what country is the fittest on the planet. That said, the title of the fittest country in the world is one that we’ll certainly accept when given it, as Ireland was in research carried out by Fitbit that was published earlier this week. Having analysed data from 23.2 million Fitbit wearers around the world (over 10 million users in the United States and more than 10 thousand users in each international country) last year, Fitbit ranked Ireland at the top of their 2017 Fitbit Fittest Countries list. After analysing aggregated and anonymous data on sleep, steps, active minutes, and resting heart rate, Ireland came out on top of the list, followed by the United Kingdom, Sweden, the Netherlands and Switzerland in the top five. Spanish Fitbit users were found to have the highest number of average steps per day (9,023 compared to Ireland’s 8,517) and the most active minutes, while Fitbit users in the UK had the best quality of sleep (an average of 7 hours, 14 minutes and 44 seconds per night), with Ireland ranking in fourth place. Granted, the data is pretty selective, but the title of ‘the fittest country in the world’ has a nice ring to it. If you’re a Fitbit wearer, give yourself a pat on the back. You’ve earned it.