Despite the country's growing obesity trends, Ireland has been deemed as the fittest country in the world, according to Fitbit.

The fitness-tracking organisation has revealed its Fittest Countries 2017 rankings, using aggregated and anonymous data from more than 20 million Fitbit users across the globe.

Fitbit researchers evaluated average rates for duration of sleep, daily steps, daily active minutes, resting heart rate and 'reminders to move' goals to determine the fittest countries in the world.

Irish Fitbit users performed well across all metrics, but have some stepping up to do with a daily average step count of 8,517 steps.

It is recommended users hit 10,000 steps daily.

Spain was the country with the highest number of steps a day, with an average of 9,023 steps.

The data revealed Irish users sleep well, getting an average of seven hours, 11 minutes and seven seconds a night, ranking fourth on the list of highest quality of sleep.

The UK topped the list with an average of seven hours, 14 minutes and 44 seconds per night, while Hungarians sleep the least at just six hours, 52 minutes and 37 seconds.

The top 10 fittest countries, according to Fitbit, were: 1) Ireland, 2) UK, 3) Sweden, 4) Netherlands, 5) Switzerland, 6) Denmark, 7) Spain, 8) Finland, 9) Germany, 10) New Zealand.

Irish Independent