US Obesity in Global Perspective
What is the U.S. share of the global problem compared to overall population share?
January 28, 2018
1. About 11% of the world’s obese population can be found in the United States, as of 2015.
2. That is 2.5 times higher than the U.S. share of the global population (4.4%).
US Obesity in Global Perspective
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3. Globally, 94.7 million of the 710 million overweight people worldwide who qualify as obese are American adults or children (79.4 million are adults).
4. In absolute numbers, China has the next-largest number of obese adults, with 57.3 million.
5. Among the world’s 20 most populous countries, the highest proportional rates of adult obesity can be found in the United States (36%), Turkey and Egypt (32% each), Mexico (29%) and Iran (26%).
Sources: New England Journal of Medicine, World Factbook, CNN, The Globalist Research Center