How many obese people are in the world

Pregnant women who are obese may suffer from complications that can lead to health problems for the mother or child. Because of the many health concerns associated with obesity, it can be used as a major overall health indicator of a population. The healthiest countries in the world generally have lower obesity rates.

Introduced in the s, this measure considers a person's weight in relation to their height. A normal BMI is Despite its popularity, BMI is widely considered to be a flawed metric. It fails to consider vital influencing factors such as body type, gender, age, and bone density.

Moreover, BMI can't distinguish between muscle and fat. This can lead to clearly inaccurate results, particularly in athletes. For example, professional wrestler "Stone Cold" Steve Austin in his prime was a heavily muscled picture of physical fitness—but his 6'2" height and lb kg weight gave him a BMI of Because of results such as these, BMI is a fairly imprecise determiner of whether or not a given person is overweight.

Obesity Statistics. Worldwide obesity has nearly doubled since More than 40 million children under the age of five were overweight in Obesity is preventable! Overweight and obesity: are defined as abnormal or excessive fat accumulation that may impair health; have important consequences for morbidity, disability and quality of life; entail higher risk of developing type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular diseases, several common forms of cancer, osteoarthritis and other health problems; and are serious public health challenges in the WHO European Region.

Some WHO global estimates from follow. More than 1. Of these overweight adults, over million men and nearly million women were obese. Globally, there has been: an increased intake of energy-dense foods that are high in fat; and an increase in physical inactivity due to the increasingly sedentary nature of many forms of work, changing modes of transportation, and increasing urbanization. Raised BMI is a major risk factor for noncommunicable diseases such as: cardiovascular diseases mainly heart disease and stroke , which were the leading cause of death in ; diabetes; musculoskeletal disorders especially osteoarthritis — a highly disabling degenerative disease of the joints ; The risk for these noncommunicable diseases increases, with the increase in BMI.

While they continue to deal with the problems of infectious disease and under-nutrition, they are experiencing a rapid upsurge in noncommunicable disease risk factors such as obesity and overweight, particularly in urban settings. It is not uncommon to find under-nutrition and obesity existing side-by-side within the same country, the same community and the same household. At the individual level, people can: limit energy intake from total fats and sugars; increase consumption of fruit and vegetables, as well as legumes, whole grains and nuts; engage in regular physical activity 60 minutes a day for children and minutes per week for adults.

Therefore, at the societal level it is important to: support individuals in following the recommendations above, through sustained political commitment and the collaboration of many public and private stakeholders; make regular physical activity and healthier dietary choices available, affordable and easily accessible to all — especially the poorest individuals.

The food industry can play a significant role in promoting healthy diets by: reducing the fat, sugar and salt content of processed foods; ensuring that healthy and nutritious choices are available and affordable to all consumers; practicing responsible marketing especially those aimed at children and teenagers; ensuring the availability of healthy food choices and supporting regular physical activity practice in the workplace.

Share of men who are overweight Share of men who are overweight Statistics. Share of females with Obesity Share of females with Obesity Statistics. Share of females who are overweight Share of females who are overweight Statistics. We have developed five key areas of policy that are a priority to us. Want to know more? Check them out here! Obesity Prevalence Childhood Obesity According to the World Health Organisation, it is estimated that 41 million children under the age of 5 years were overweight or obese in Read more.

Our Data At the World Obesity Federation, we have been collating country specific prevalence data for over 20 years. Country and regional pages You can also view all data we have available for a country or region! Data tables Interactive and customisable data tables for adults and children. Presentation maps Flat presentation maps that show obesity data by region across different decades.

Rankings Find here interactive global rankings of estimated obesity prevalence. Personal account All are now able to create personal accounts to save their favourite graphs, create customised tables, personalised PDFs, and more.

Chartbuilder Feature that allows you to create you own personalised charts that will be saved in your own personal account.

Downloadable PDFs and graphics All graphs are downloadable, as are country reports, regional reports, ranking tables, and flat maps. Causes of obesity. Share this page. Read More.