A new global study of international obesity rates has painted a porky picture of Australasia, which is now the fastest growing region in the world. Since 1980, Australian and New Zealand obesity rates have leapt from 16 per cent to a whopping 29 per cent. In Australia, an estimated 11 million adults are now overweight along with nearly a quarter of our kids.
Weight gain picture from Shutterstock
The global obesity study was conducted by an international consortium of researchers led by the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME) at the University of Washington. Overweight is defined as having a Body Mass Index (BMI), or weight-to-height ratio, greater than or equal to 25 and lower than 30, while obesity is defined as having a BMI equal to or greater than 30. (While BMI can be a poor obesity indicator for individuals, it’s usually pretty solid when calculating entire populations.)
In a result that probably won’t surprise you, it found that approximately 2.1 billion people — nearly one-third of the world’s population — are overweight or obese. More than 50 per cent of obese people live in just 10 countries: US, China, India, Russia, Brazil, Mexico, Egypt, Germany, Pakistan, and Indonesia.
In high-income countries, some of the largest increases in adult obesity were found in the US (where one-third of adults are obese), Australia (nearly 30 per cent), and the UK (around 25 per cent). New Zealand also broke the scales with a total adult obesity rate of 29 per cent.
In Australia, the adult overweight and obesity rate now stands at 63 per cent, an increase of 14 per cent since 1980. Weight increase has also ballooned among Australian children, with nearly 24 per cent either obese or overweight; up from 16 per cent in 1980.
Aussie blokes are more likely to be overweight or obese than woman — 68 per cent vs. 56 per cent. Interestingly, this was one of the largest gender gaps in obesity globally.
Of 188 countries included in the study, only 15 nations managed to outsize Australian males in the obesity stakes. Despite this, our 2013 global ranking for both sexes is #52. (Thanks, ladies.)
Here’s how the top ten played out, in terms of obesity prevalence for both sexes:
- Kiribati (56.7%)
- Samoa (45.9%)
- Federated States of Micronesi (45.1%)
- Tonga (43.2%)
- Solomon Islands (38.4%)
- Libya (37.0%)
- Egypt (35.4%)
- Kuwait (34.8%)
- Uruguay (34.4%)
- Chile (34.4%)
(In case you were wondering, the USA came in at #21.)
Meanwhile, North Korea is the slimmest nation on Earth, with an obesity prevalence of just 1.0 per cent. All that terror and communism must be good for the constitution.
“Obesity is an issue affecting people of all ages and incomes, everywhere,” said Dr. Christopher Murray, director of IHME and co-founder of the study. “In the last three decades, not one country has achieved success in reducing obesity rates.”
But it’s not all bad news (it’s just mostly bad news). In developed countries, increases in obesity have begun to slow since 2006; we’re still getting fatter, but at a slower rate. Then again, maybe that just means obesity levels have finally maxed out — just like our bellies.
You can check out more results via IHME’s data visualization tool which includes interactive maps, graphs and pie charts for each country.
Comments
10 responses to “It’s Official: Australia And New Zealand Have The Fastest Growing Obesity Rate On Earth”
And to celebrate this achievement, I’m going to have a baconated beer and sausage smoothie. And a diet coke. Don’t want to get fat.
You may laugh, but I read this while eating a burger. at 9am.
I laugh, because I wish that I was in a situation where I could have a burger for breakfast. Perhaps I need to drink heavily the night before. Would certainly go over well at work?
Good, you forfeit all the fine looking women to me 😀
IMO part of the blame lies with the “fat is beautiful” movement which makes people think it’s perfectly OK to be obese. High self esteem and confidence is awesome. High blood pressure, cholesterol, and diabetes is not.
I’m disgusted by fat people. And yes, I did say fat people.
My ex-wife who is now living in Australia (one by birth) has almost doubled her weight in the two years we have been apart.
Also I am less likely to brake for a fatty on a pedestrian crossing than a thin person, based on the logic the fatty will explode like a water balloon and damage my ute less. I fear a thin person will go straight through the radiator, f*** explaining that one to the cops…..
SELF-EDIT: Comment removed. CBF’ed.
This really needs to be address, the cost of obesity on the health system is already massive and based on this will continue to increase. We need to start taxing food that is linked to obesity and use the taxes collected to subsides the cost of fruit, veg etc.
Isn’t BMI completely discredited as a health measure yet?
Edit: Yup. http://natmonitor.com/2013/08/25/bmi-is-a-subpar-measure-of-your-health-some-experts-say/
Oh and ‘Being fat is no worse for you than being a woman’ http://www.theregister.co.uk/2010/05/26/latest_bmi_foolishness/
I always feel really sad when I take my son to school and I see grossly overweight children there. Not much hope for them to live happy lives when they’re not even 10 and they’re morbidly obese
🙁