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People in Ireland make health a priority, poll finds

‘Exercising more’ and ‘eating healthier’ are the main goals for 2020 for almost half of people in Ireland.
That is according to a new poll, which found that 49 per cent say they will exercise more and 46 per cent plan to eat healthier, with personal finances and learning something new also being among the most popular resolutions.

The YouGov survey, commissioned by YouTube, revealed that of all Irish adults who want to learn a skill for work or a hobby in 2020, 40 per cent plan to spend more time on self-care and self-development, which involves activities like meditation, mindfulness etc. The third most popular area was working out/ playing a sport, with 37 per cent of those surveyed saying this was an area they’d like to improve/learn or start in 2020.

Technology plays an important role in not only monitoring the achievement of these goals, for example, through a mobile app to measure calorie intake, but also to access quality content (for example, to learn new workout routines or healthy food recipes). Irish adults who have made a New Year’s resolution indicated that mobile applications (28 per cent), YouTube (27 per cent) and social networks (22 per cent) are important platforms which they used to try help them achieve past goals.

The survey, which included 13 countries, revealed that, as in Ireland, exercising more also appears in the top charts across adults in the UK, Germany, Spain, and Austria, while eating healthier is the most common goal for respondents in the Netherlands and Poland. On the other hand, adults in countries like Russia, Italy, France and Portugal show more interest in traveling than in acquiring healthier habits.