A Picture of Obesity Around the World

Go USA Go !

A very interesting chart. It belies the argument that obesity is the price of prosperity. Three of the top 5 are struggling - one is seriously struggling.

Eight years ago La Repubblica had an article on the growing BMI in the European Union. I was surprised by the article because it said that Germany and the U.K. had overtaken the US, and Italy was number 4. This graphic indicates otherwise, but it's looking at the percentages at the high end of the curve.

So, I went back to the source data of this poster, which is the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). From this data (which, the OECD warns, is not uniformly collected and therefore probably not great for such comparisons), in terms of overweight and obese, the order is US (66.3%), UK (63%), Mexico (62.3%), Canada (57.5%), Greece (57.1%), New Zealand (56.2%). Germany is 49.2% and Italy is 42.6%. By constructing this list, I had to compare self-collected data from 2000 (Mexico) with sampled data from 2004 (US). So, I agree with the OECD: you should take this data with many grains of salt. And, from the combined data, everybody is getting pretty pudgy (Finland hs gone from 36.3% in 1981 to 49.2% in 2005; Netherlands from 33.3% to 46.4%; Japan from 19.7% to 24.9%).

There's a lot of data here to mine (and, probably, abuse)...

That is a really interesting visual. Not necessarily 100% accurate (based on Quito's numbers), but good enough to give a quick picture of the issues and make you think! This would be a great display for the average doctor's office...

TheMorbidMe said:
Go USA Go !

Thanks for giving me a good laugh! :-)

Susanna said:
Three of the top 5 are struggling - one is seriously struggling.

I have a problem with Mexican food too: Damn tasty - damn carbohydrates! :)

Rice, beans, corn... Wheat, potatoes, millet, soy...

The rich have access to more food, but the poor have access to poorer food.

Susan said:
TheMorbidMe said: Go USA Go ! Yeah!!! We're Number One! We're Number One! Thanks for giving me a good laugh! :-)[...]

yeah, thanks for the giggles

Quito said:
Eight years ago La Repubblica had an article on the growing BMI in the European Union. I was surprised by the article because it said that Germany and the U.K. had overtaken the US, and Italy was number 4. This graphic indicates otherwise, but it's looking at the percentages at the high end of the curve.[...]

Of course, this chart shows only obese (BMI over 30), and your numbers show "overweight and obese"-- could account for some difference

Heather said:
Of course, this chart shows only obese (BMI over 30), and your numbers show "overweight and obese"-- could account for some difference[...]

What I was going to say....the % classified "obese" (BMI >30) is accurate in the poster and doesn't reflect (nor do I think it was intending to) the population that is overweight but not obese.

Thank you for linking to my site.

-Grey

That's an amusing pictorial. The top line looks like a bunch of fat bugs. The bottom line looks like stick figures by the end. But at least the bottom line looks like a representation of people. This is one competition where I wish the US was NOT #1.

Regina, Heather - I agree that the difference is between "obese" and "overweight". i think the difference in the ordering is itself interesting. And, I encourage you to look at the source data. A problem with any graphic - or summary - is that it hides the issues with the meaning of the data.

Kallish - I must be missing something ^_^ but isn't the Japanese diet, like the Mexican diet, high in carbohydrates? In Japan, sashimi is not an everyday dish.

perhaps it's the way in which the carbohydrates are prepared. a lot of mexican dishes require that you deep fry things in oil or cook things with lard or top things off with a lot of cheese.

speaking from my korean background and knowledge of korean and japanese cuisine, koreans and japanese alike dont use a lot of fat in preparing dishes, so their diet, although high in carbohydrates, tends to be low in fat (and keep in mind that 1gram of carb = 4 cal, 1gram of fat = 9 cal).

Woo Canada! ;)

The Slovak Republic in fourth place ? Then why do I feel like such a fat lump every time I go there ? Where are they hiding the fat people ? I agree the UK should be right up there (I'm one of those contributing to its high placement) but Slovakia ?

Sigh, I am a fat American living in Korea, no wonder I hate them. Ok, not all the time, just when I'm hormonal.

i love things like this - so easy to digest the info - bad pun!
look at those skinny koreans

What's up with the complete exclusion of major developing countries (except for Mexico)? What about China, India, Brazil? I understand obesity is on the rise in these countries as well...

To use BMI as a measure of obesity is very misleading. I'm sure the U.S. would still win the obesity war (or lose, as the case may be), but bodybuilders would be considered obese by these definitions.

i'm an american traveling europe right now! I noticed in france, germany, etc. all they eat is bread and pastries. How do they do that?

jp said:
To use BMI as a measure of obesity is very misleading. I'm sure the U.S. would still win the obesity war (or lose, as the case may be), but bodybuilders would be considered obese by these definitions.[...]

I think the stats are a little skewed because they aren't including overweight people in with the obese people. And if they are using BMI as the criterion for determining who's overweight and/or obese, they aren't getting the most accurate picture. Lots of Asians are built very small with tiny frames and many of them are "overfat" without being technically "overweight". Just like some people are very muscular and are "underfat" without being "underweight". It's not just bodybuilders, either. Any athlete should use body fat percentage to figure out whether or not they're healthy.

It would be interesting to do a principal factors analysis on information obtained from the OECD website. I'm curious how much a factor having cheap corn affects the overweight and obese statistics.

Has anyone read Dan Imhoff's latest book Farm Fight: The Citizen's Guide to a Food and Farm Bill? I've listened to interviews and discussion about it; it sounds quite good.

glo said:
i'm an american traveling europe right now! I noticed in france, germany, etc. all they eat is bread and pastries. How do they do that?[...]

when i'm a european who went to america a few summers back. and what i noticed was that people hardly walked. i think the reason why some europeans can meat bread & pasties is because they do more physical exercise. you must also be aware that their entire diet doesn't just consist of those two foods. it's quite obvious, in fact, that is doesn't. finally - portion size.

ugh, errors:

* when = well
*meat = eat (oddly enough)

i also forgot to add when i came to the states i was surprised at the huge portion sizes. they are much too big. maybe generally some european countries have a better understanding on portion sizes. however, the uk has very nearly caught up on huge portion sizes too. although, in the us your portions of fast food & take-aways are a lot bigger than in the uk. you also seem to be able to get a lot of crap food for cheap, which is now the same in the uk.

i think in other european countries like france, italy etc, there is more emphasis on preparing fresh, prepared from scratch home cooked meals and on the use of vegetables.

in italy, they don't drown their pasta with sauce - it's just enough to cover the pasta. over here, i know that sauce is just pilled on like it's a side dish. that's extra cals people don't really need. a lot of european food is really rich but it's the portion size that is one of the key factors to helping the population stay slim, imo.

Core Trainer said:
but when you look at the population as a whole, bodybuilders make up only a small percentage[...]

All you have to do is take a look at any place in America (ok, except for Venice Beach where the bodybuilders hang out, haha) and you'll see that the people who look like they have BMI >30 don't look like bodybuilders.

Core Trainer said:
[...]

Exactly right.
Throwing in "exceptions" into statistics is usually meaningless, because averages by virtue of what they are exclude the exceptions. There are people with BMI over 30 who are not overfat-- there are people with BMI under 30 who are in terms of body fat obese. One extreme serves to cancel out the small statistical significance of another.

Statistics do not exist to tell us absolute truths, but to show us general trend.

And can anyone really dispute the general trend the graph based on these statistics is displaying?

Heather said:
Exactly right.
Throwing in "exceptions" into statistics is usually meaningless, because averages by virtue of what they are exclude the exceptions. There are people with BMI over 30 who are not overfat-- there are people with BMI under 30 who are in terms of body fat obese. One extreme serves to cancel out the small statistical significance of [...]

I definatly agree, the general trend, portion sizes, less exerc., more money, more food, everything about our society says eat and you will feel better, starve and you will look better, nothing makes sence when you have to teach kids in school veggies are better then burgers, after they already learning at home that burgers are cheap and filling. our rediulous "sex sells" advertising and bigger is better eating is hurting people everyday, if the poster is not the most acurate, i don't care, it makes people say hummm. and if more people did that mabye the numbers would not be so high here. we are a fat nation not phat...not anymore.

No way New Zealand should be where it is. I was there this winter and was suprised how few fat people there were. Anywhere in Eastern Europe, wherre I work, has more fat people than there, young people are thin, but it doesn't last much past 30.

Wow, the United States of America has the number of the most obese folk ever!! However in 5 or 6 years hence, other Asian nations like the Philippines (where I live in), will join the obese parade.

What year was the data for this graph recorded?

i think america is disgusting and they need to go on a diet as the food which they eat that they dnt need to to they could give it to the thrid world countries =D

i agree. amerca is a disgrace to the world

i am from MEXICO and ITALY, but i live in AMERICA. I am currently HUNGARY. i want TURKEY, fried in GREECE. (and i want a copyright on that so nobody else can use it without my permission!!)

I should be at the top.