It will come as no surprise to anybody that there are more fat people in the US than in any other developed country. It's not a new phenomenon, but it keeps getting worse year after year. 20 years ago I was already shocked that one third of Americans were obese. Now the latest data points to over 45% of obesity as of 2023 and somewhere around 75% of the US population who is overweight!
In fact there doesn't seem to be any official statistics for 2023 yet, but the data can be extrapolated by following the trend from previous years and decades.
The following graph is from the NIH, but it stops at 2017-18. From 2011-12 to 2017-18, adult obesity rates have increased from 34.9% to 42.4%, i.e. 7.5% in six years or +1.25% per year. Following that trend, the data should be approximately 43.65% in 2019-2020, 44.9% in 2021-2022, and 46.15% in 2023-24. So 45% for 2023 seems a reasonable estimate. Severe obesity is probably over 10% now. At this rate, in 2027 half of the US adult population will be obese.
The same page on the NIH website also shows that child obesity is also increasing fast and now surely exceeds 20% for the average of all ages.
This is for obesity. But the NIH reports that in addition to obese people (BMI >30), 30.7% of Americans were overweight (BMI between 25 and 29.9) in 2017-18. Even if this percentage remained stable until 2023, that would still be 75% of Americans who are either overweight or obese. Unfortunately I couldn't find a chart showing the evolution of overweight rates, but this chart combines both overweight and obese people. In 2018, already over 75% of American men had excess weight. By extrapolation, in 2023 there should be about 80% of men and 70% of women who have a BMI over 25. If the trend continues, in 8 years (2031) 90% of American men will be overweight of obese. That's just crazy.
In fact there doesn't seem to be any official statistics for 2023 yet, but the data can be extrapolated by following the trend from previous years and decades.
The following graph is from the NIH, but it stops at 2017-18. From 2011-12 to 2017-18, adult obesity rates have increased from 34.9% to 42.4%, i.e. 7.5% in six years or +1.25% per year. Following that trend, the data should be approximately 43.65% in 2019-2020, 44.9% in 2021-2022, and 46.15% in 2023-24. So 45% for 2023 seems a reasonable estimate. Severe obesity is probably over 10% now. At this rate, in 2027 half of the US adult population will be obese.
The same page on the NIH website also shows that child obesity is also increasing fast and now surely exceeds 20% for the average of all ages.
This is for obesity. But the NIH reports that in addition to obese people (BMI >30), 30.7% of Americans were overweight (BMI between 25 and 29.9) in 2017-18. Even if this percentage remained stable until 2023, that would still be 75% of Americans who are either overweight or obese. Unfortunately I couldn't find a chart showing the evolution of overweight rates, but this chart combines both overweight and obese people. In 2018, already over 75% of American men had excess weight. By extrapolation, in 2023 there should be about 80% of men and 70% of women who have a BMI over 25. If the trend continues, in 8 years (2031) 90% of American men will be overweight of obese. That's just crazy.
