Obesity Factors

Obesity is a major global, epidemic that affects everyone- all age groups, all income levels and all countries.

Obesity has more than doubled since 1980.
At least 2.8 million adults die each year as a result of being overweight or obese.
The global cost of obesity has risen to over $2 trillion annually.
In 2014, 41 million children under the age of 5 were overweight or obese.
In 2014, more than 1.9 billion adults, 18 years and older, were overweight. Of these over 600 million were obese.

Since 1980, rates of obese:
- 6 to 11-year-olds more than doubled (7% to 17.5%).
- 12 to 19-year-olds more than quadrupled (5% to 20.5%).
The average adult obesity rate is roughly 38%.
Half of the states have an adult obesity rate of 30% or higher.
More than 15 million children live in food-insecure households.
In 2015, 73% of high school students and 80% of adults do not reach the recommended levels of physical activity.
Approximately 25% of young adults (ages 17 to 24) are too overweight to join the military.

Unlike in the past, when undernutrition was a greater threat than over-nutrition, more people around the world die from obesity-related diseases than from malnutrition every year.
Many low- and middle-income countries now face a "double burden" of disease. Even as they continue to struggle with the problems of infectious diseases and poor nutrition, they are also experiencing a rapid upsurge in obesity, particularly in urban areas.
This double burden is caused by inadequate pre-natal, infant and child nutrition, which is then followed by exposure to high-fat, energy-dense, micronutrient-poor foods and a lack of physical activity as the child grows older.
Thus, it is common to find undernutrition and obesity existing side-by-side within the same country, the same community and even within the same household in these settings.