| Just the FAQs: How Prevalent is Obesity? |
Q: How prevalent is obesity?
A: Statistics from the National Institutes of Health indicate that more than half of U.S. adults are overweight (including the obese) and that 25% of U.S. adults qualify as being obese. 5 Among U.S. adults aged 20-74 years, obesity has nearly doubled from approximately 15 percent of that population in 1980 to an estimated 27 percent in 1999. 1
The highest increase of obesity has occurred among the age group of 18 to 29, people with some college education, and people of Hispanic ethnicity. There is also an alarming prevalence in weight gain in American children. The CDC reports that there are almost twice as many overweight children and almost three times as many overweight adolescents as there were in 1980. The southern region of the U.S. has seen the largest change in obesity statistics as compared with other regions; there has been a 67% increase in the number of obese people residing there. 2
1 Defining Overweight and Obesity
2 Obesity epidemic increases...
5 Statistics Related to Overweight and Obesity
