Public health is an important resource for ensuring the state stability, a key factor in social development and national security. The current stage in the implementation of the state policy in the field of physical culture and sports is characterizedby an increased attention to the formation of a healthy lifestyle across the population. Nevertheless, the percentage of citizens involved in mass sports remains low. The article considers scientific approaches to the definition of the concept of «healthy lifestyle», which is a set of measures aimed at improving the health of the individual, the way (or forms) of life activity and the consciousness or psychology of people in relation to one’s own health. The authors propose considering a healthy lifestyle through the prism of social significance as a global social problem, an integral part of the society life as a whole as well as consciousness and psychology of a person in relation to one’s own health. The role of physical education and sports in the formation of a healthy lifestyle is defined. Through the author’s sociological research, the role of physical education and sports in the lifestyle of the modern youth was analyzed. The main reasons preventing youth from physical education and sports were revealed. The authors conclude that a new approach to the formation of the physical education of society and the individual calls for essential changes in state policy in this branch and the appeal of its vector to the mass sports development.