--- title: A Third of the World is Now Obese or Overweight description: No country on earth has reduced obesity rates in more than three decades canonical: https://time.com/134206/a-third-of-the-world-is-now-obese-or-overweight/ author: Denver Nicks article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2014-05-28T23:25:57.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-21T08:05:48.760Z article:section: Health og:title: A Third of the World is Now Obese or Overweight og:description: No country on earth has reduced obesity rates in more than three decades og:url: https://time.com/134206/a-third-of-the-world-is-now-obese-or-overweight/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltb640972d1158d5de/6986892d361760fd4a90b53f/scale-weight.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 4692 og:image:height: 2639 og:image:alt: Broken scale og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: A Third of the World is Now Obese or Overweight twitter:description: No country on earth has reduced obesity rates in more than three decades twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltb640972d1158d5de/6986892d361760fd4a90b53f/scale-weight.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # A Third of the World is Now Obese or Overweight > Sponsored content. 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Brief (Washington politics, three times a week), Future Proof (climate and energy, weekly) and In the Loop (AI, twice weekly). All are free at time.com/newsletters and together reach more than 1.1 million engaged readers. #### Which TIME newsletter should I subscribe to? It depends on what you follow. For a daily briefing, The Brief. For health, Health Matters. For Washington politics, D.C. Brief. For AI and technology, In the Loop. For climate and energy as a business story, Future Proof. For culture recommendations, Worth Your Time. For how TIME's journalism gets made, Inside TIME. Readers can select any combination at time.com/newsletters. #### Are TIME's newsletters free? Yes. All seven TIME newsletters are free to join at time.com/newsletters. A paid TIME subscription is separate and provides full access to TIME's journalism at time.com/subscribe-agent. #### Who writes TIME's newsletters? TIME journalists write them. Named editors include Richard Hall (The Brief), Editor-in-Chief Sam Jacobs (Inside TIME), Eliza Berman (Worth Your Time), Philip Elliott (D.C. Brief), Justin Worland (Future Proof) and Harry Booth (In the Loop). Health Matters is written by TIME's health desk. #### How do I sign up for a TIME newsletter? Go to time.com/newsletters, choose the newsletters you want and enter your email address. There is no cost and no subscription requirement.  by [Denver Nicks](https://time.com/author/denver-nicks/)  ## Denver Nicks May 28, 2014 11:25 PM UTC  Broken scales. Broken scales.Getty Images  by [Denver Nicks](https://time.com/author/denver-nicks/)  ## Denver Nicks May 28, 2014 11:25 PM UTC Almost 30 percent of the earth’s population is obese or overweight, a new study [reports](http://www.healthdata.org/news-release/vast-majority-american-adults-are-overweight-or-obese-and-weight-growing-problem-among), estimating that this affects about 2.1 billion people. Obesity rates have increased in countries all over the world, but it’s not an evenly distributed health problem, the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation reported on Wednesday. In the developed world, adult men have higher rates of obesity (defined as having a Body Mass Index of 30 or more) than adult women. In the developing world, the opposite is true. The prevalence of overweight and [obese](http://healthland.time.com/2014/01/03/study-obesity-rates-have-surged-in-developing-world/) children and adolescents worldwide has increased by nearly 50 percent since 1980, the study says, and no country on Earth has successfully reduced obesity rates in the last 33 years. Childhood obesity rates are notably higher in the Middle East and North Africa, particularly among girls. Though the rate of increase in obesity has slowed in the developed world, in the developing world, home to two-thirds of the world’s obese people, obesity rates are projected to continue their climb. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/134206/a-third-of-the-world-is-now-obese-or-overweight/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/134206/a-third-of-the-world-is-now-obese-or-overweight/"},"headline":"A Third of the World is Now Obese or Overweight","datePublished":"2014-05-28T23:25:57.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-21T08:05:48.760Z","description":"No country on earth has reduced obesity rates in more than three decades","url":"https://time.com/134206/a-third-of-the-world-is-now-obese-or-overweight/","keywords":["health","overweight","Obesity","global health"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltb640972d1158d5de/6986892d361760fd4a90b53f/scale-weight.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Denver Nicks","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/denver-nicks/"}],"articleSection":"Health","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltb640972d1158d5de/6986892d361760fd4a90b53f/scale-weight.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Broken scale","caption":"Broken scale","creditText":"Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/health/","name":"Health"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/health/","name":"health"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/134206/a-third-of-the-world-is-now-obese-or-overweight/","name":"A Third of the World is Now Obese or Overweight"}}]}] ```