A nationwide study published this month indicated falling cardio fitness levels among Finnish kids. Many schoolchildren are showing a decline in both physical endurance and limberness.
Experts say one factor behind the trend is that hobbies have become too expensive for families to afford.
"Health and illness are linked to socioeconomic background," Åbo Akademi social policy professor Mikael Nygård told Yle.
He noted that this link is known as the social gradient, whereby less advantaged people in terms of socioeconomic position are not as healthy as more privileged groups.
That said, getting a good workout doesn’t have to be expensive. However, organised sports activities are the most popular form of exercise among young people in Finland, according to the National Sports Council, a panel working with the Ministry of Culture and Education.
Organised sports have risen in popularity over the last decade, with four out of five youths trying out some form of club sport before reaching adulthood.
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A 2018 health survey found that more kids believed exercise hobbies were too expensive compared to four years earlier.
"Organised sports demand that guardians have both time and money to spare. We see that the possibility of having both of these things is pretty polarised. Families’ economic situations are generally quite polarised," Nygård explained.
The professor said the socioeconomic gap between families has not really widened over the past decade, but noted that the fact that it exists is a problem.
Nygård said sedentary lifestyles were also to blame for kids becoming less fit.
"Mobile games and apps have made our lives a little too comfortable. The overall trend is that we’ve moved from an active to an increasingly sedentary lifestyle."
Håkan Nystrand, chair of Finland’s Swedish Sports Confederation, said he partially agreed that sports hobbies are linked to parents’ pocketbooks.
"It almost hurts me to say this. It shouldn’t be this way, but the fact is that very few sports hobbies are free. As soon as we start talking about term fees, it becomes a socioeconomic issue," he explained.
Annual fees for a child’s sport activities have tripled over the past 20 years to thousands of euros, according to the Ministry of Education and Culture.
Finland has special sports-themed high schools. Nystrand said he wants the same sports emphasis to trickle down to comprehensive education, with municipalities taking on a bigger role in providing sports activities for children.
This autumn Henrik Dettmann, who coaches the men's national basketball team, told Yle News' All Points North podcast he wants the state to fund activities for all pupils during the school day to give every kid a chance to have a hobby, regardless of what parents can afford.
"Now we’re so dependent on the parents, their education, their understanding and their wallet," he said of the system which often excludes children from low-income families.
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