Epidemiology

The United States is experiencing substantial increases in overweight and obesity (as defined by a BMI ≥ 25 for adults) that cut across all ages, racial and ethnic groups, and both genders.³⁰ According to self-reported measures of height and weight, obesity   (BMI ≥ 30) has been increasing in every State in the Nation.³¹ Based on clinical height and weight measurements in the 1999 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES), 34 percent of U.S. adults aged 20 to 74 years are overweight (BMI 25 to 29.9), and an additional 27 percent are obese (BMI ≥ 30).³² This contrasts with the late 1970s, when an estimated 32 percent of adults aged 20 to 74 years were overweight, and 15 percent were obese (figure 4).³⁰

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The most recent data (1999) estimate that 13 percent of children aged 6 to 11 years and 14 percent of adolescents aged 12 to 19 years are overweight.³³ During the past two decades, the percentage of children who are overweight has nearly doubled (from 7 to 13 percent), and the percentage of adolescents who are overweight has almost tripled (from 5 to 14 percent) (figure 5).³³

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Last revised: January 11, 2007