Share of adults who are obese

Data source: World Health Organization – Global Health Observatory (2026) – with minor processing by Our World in Data
Unit: %
Date range: 1980-2024
Last updated: 2026-05-22
Next expected update: 2027-05-22
Managed by: Mojmír Vinkler

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All data and visualizations on Our World in Data rely on data sourced from one or several original data providers. Preparing this original data involves several processing steps. Depending on the data, this can include standardizing country names and world region definitions, converting units, calculating derived indicators such as per capita measures, as well as adding or adapting metadata such as the name or the description given to an indicator.

At the link below you can find a detailed description of the structure of our data pipeline, including links to all the code used to prepare data across Our World in Data.

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Documentation from data sources

WHO

Definition

Percentage of adults aged 18+ years with a body mass index (BMI) of 30 kg/m2 or higher.

Method of measurement

Based on measured height and weight.

Method of estimation

Input data and methods are described here: NCD-RisC. Worldwide trends in underweight and obesity from 1990 to 2022: a pooled analysis of 3663 population-representative studies with 222 million children, adolescents and adults.

Lancet 2024. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/ S0140-6736(23)02750-2

Statistical code is available here: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.10534960

Data sources

World Health Organization – Global Health Observatory

The GHO data repository is WHO's gateway to health-related statistics for its 194 Member States. It provides access to over 1000 indicators on priority health topics including mortality and burden of diseases, the Millennium Development Goals (child nutrition, child health, maternal and reproductive health, immunization, HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, malaria, neglected diseases, water and sanitation), non communicable diseases and risk factors, epidemic-prone diseases, health systems, environmental health, violence and injuries, equity among others.

Retrieved on

May 22, 2026

Retrieved from

https://www.who.int/data/gho

Citation

This is the citation of the original data obtained from the source, prior to any processing or adaptation by Our World in Data.

World Health Organization. 2026. Global Health Observatory data repository. http://www.who.int/gho/en/.

How to cite

How to cite this page

To cite this page overall, including any descriptions, FAQs or explanations of the data authored by Our World in Data, please use the following citation:

“Data Page: Share of adults who are obese”, part of the following publication: Esteban Ortiz-Ospina and Max Roser (2016) - “Global Health”. Data adapted from World Health Organization. Retrieved from https://archive.ourworldindata.org/20261102-112946/grapher/share-of-adults-defined-as-obese.html [online resource] (archived on November 2, 2026).

How to cite this data

If you have limited space (e.g. in data visualizations), you can use this abbreviated in-line citation:

World Health Organization – Global Health Observatory (2026) – with minor processing by Our World in Data

Full citation

World Health Organization – Global Health Observatory (2026) – with minor processing by Our World in Data. “Share of adults who are obese – WHO” [dataset]. World Health Organization, “Global Health Observatory” [original data]. Retrieved November 2, 2026 from https://archive.ourworldindata.org/20261102-112946/grapher/share-of-adults-defined-as-obese.html (archived on November 2, 2026).

All data produced by third-party providers and made available by Our World in Data are subject to the license terms from the original providers. Our work would not be possible without the data providers we rely on, so we ask you to always cite them appropriately. This is crucial to allow data providers to continue doing their work, enhancing, maintaining and updating valuable data.

All data, visualizations, and code produced by Our World in Data are completely open access under the Creative Commons BY license. You have the permission to use, distribute, and reproduce these in any medium, provided the source and authors are credited.

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