Vital Statistics - Worldwide Obesity Rates

There is much written and reported about the alarming increase in childhood and adult obesity rates across the globe. Current statistics indicate that there are over 530million obese people in the world right now, and this is ever growing. Obesity is defined as a person with a body mass index (BMI) of over 30kgs per square metre. BMI is defined as the weight in kilograms divided by the square of the height in metres (kgs/m2).

Even in my own sun-kissed, outdoor living Australia, it has been recently reported that obesity rates  are increasing more rapidly than anywhere else in the world. The results of the global study into obesity rates, published in the medical journal The Lancet, show that a quarter of the country's children and over 60% of the adult population is overweight. Australia's obesity levels are now on level with that of United States, although just a little less than New Zealand.

Worldwide, there has been a startling increase in rates of obesity and overweight in both adults (28% increase) and children (up by 47%) in the past 33 years, with the number of overweight and obese people rising from 857 million in 1980 to 2.1 billion in 2013, according to a major new analysis from the Global Burden of Disease Study 2013, published in The Lancet. However, the rates vary widely throughout the world with more than half of the world’s 671 million obese individuals living in just ten countries—the USA, China and India, Russia, Brazil, Mexico, Egypt, Germany, Pakistan, and Indonesia.

Over the past three decades, the highest rises in obesity levels among women have been in Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Oman, Honduras and Bahrain, and among men in New Zealand, Bahrain, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, and the USA.

In high-income countries, some of the highest increases in adult obesity prevalence have been in the USA (where roughly a third of the adult population are obese), Australia (where 28% of men and 30% of women are obese), and the UK (where around a quarter of the adult population are obese).

The findings come from a comprehensive new analysis of the global, regional, and national prevalence of overweight and obesity in adults aged 20 years and older and children and adolescents aged 2-19 years between 1980 and 2013. The authors warn that the study presents a worrying picture of substantial rises in obesity rates across the world and say that concerted action is urgently needed to reverse this trend.

In the developed world, men have higher rates of obesity than women, while the opposite is true in developing countries. Currently, 62% of the world's obese people live in developing countries.
The prevalence of overweight and obesity in childhood has increased remarkably in developed countries, from 17% in 1980 to 24% in 2013 in boys and from 16% to 23% in girls. Similarly, in developing countries, rates have risen from roughly 8% to 13% in both boys and girls over the three decades.

Within Western Europe, levels of obesity in boys ranged from 14% in Israel and 13% in Malta, to 4% in The Netherlands and Sweden. Levels of obesity in girls were highest in Luxembourg (13%) and Israel (11%), and lowest in the Netherlands Norway, and Sweden (4%). 

One contributing Professor quoted "Unlike other major global health risks, such as tobacco and childhood nutrition, obesity is not decreasing worldwide. Our findings show that increases in the prevalence of obesity have been substantial, widespread, and have arisen over a short time. However, there is some evidence of a plateau in adult obesity rates that provides some hope that the epidemic might have peaked in some developed countries and that populations in other countries might not reach the very high rates of more than 40% reported in some developing countries."

Furthermore, "Our analysis suggests that the UN's target to stop the rise in obesity by 2025 is very ambitious and is unlikely to be achieved without concerted action and further research to assess the effect of population-wide interventions, and how to effectively translate that knowledge into national obesity control programmes. In particular, urgent global leadership is needed to help low-and middle-income countries intervene to reduce excessive calorie intake, physical inactivity, and active promotion of food consumption by industry."

Story Source:

The above story is based on materials provided by The Lancet. Note: Materials may be edited for content and length.

Marie Ng, Emmanuela Gakidou et al. Global, regional, and national prevalence of overweight and obesity in children and adults during 1980–2013: a systematic analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study 2013. The Lancet, 2014; DOI: 10.1016/S0140-6736(14)60460-8

The Lancet. "Obesity rates climbing worldwide, most comprehensive global study to date shows." ScienceDaily. ScienceDaily, 28 May 2014. <www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2014/05/140528204215.htm>.

Note that the final chart here says 'Protect Yourself - Move More and Eat Smart'. Wise advice that we all need to heed. Obesity is an epidemic, and whether you are in this category, or just a little overweight and want to do something about it, there will be more great helpful stuff coming your way soon!

WhyWeight - don't hesitate, participate, before it's too late!

-Steve, at WhyWeight-