6 Facts: Obesity in the United States
The future of health care in the United States could be highly dependent on the nation’s average waistline.
October 29, 2015
1. As of 2013, 13% of the world’s obese population resided in just one country — the United States.
2. That is three times more than the U.S.’s 4.5% share of the world’s population.
3. According to the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation at the University of Washington, an estimated 88 million Americans are obese.
The World’s Heavyweight Nations
The Developing World’s Obesity Problem
The Increasing Global Obesity Rate
4. The United States accounts for nearly one of every eight obese people in the world.
5. The medical costs of treating obesity-related illnesses in the United States totaled $147 billion in 2008.
6. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control projected that these costs would rise to $344 billion — or 21% of all healthcare spending — by 2018.
Source: University of Washington Center for Obesity Research and Centers for Disease Control with additional analysis by The Globalist Research Center
Takeaways
The United States accounts for more than one of every eight obese people in the world.
The U.S. share of obese people worldwide is three times larger than the U.S.’s 4.5% share of the world population.
By 2018, the costs of treating obesity-related diseases could account for 21% of all healthcare spending in the US.
