--- title: States With the Highest and Lowest Youth Obesity Rates description: Almost 16% of U.S. kids ages 10 to 17 are obese, according to a new report. State childhood obesity rates range from 26.1% to 8.7%. canonical: https://time.com/5432973/states-childhood-obesity-rates/ author: Jamie Ducharme article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2018-10-24T14:47:58.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-23T21:49:25.202Z article:section: Health og:title: These Are the States with the Highest and Lowest Youth Obesity Rates og:description: The national rate is nearly 16% og:url: https://time.com/5432973/states-childhood-obesity-rates/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt42b2d4cd8812b582/698878bca988ca42cb6b613e/scale-2-weight-body-image-diet-health-fitness-advice-betterment.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 2500 og:image:height: 1406 og:image:alt: scale-2-weight-body-image-diet-health-fitness-advice-betterment-motto-stock og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: These Are the States with the Highest and Lowest Youth Obesity Rates twitter:description: The national rate is nearly 16% twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt42b2d4cd8812b582/698878bca988ca42cb6b613e/scale-2-weight-body-image-diet-health-fitness-advice-betterment.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # These Are the States with the Highest and Lowest Youth Obesity Rates > Sponsored content. 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Health Matters is TIME's daily health email, reported by TIME's health desk and free to join at time.com/newsletters. It is edited by journalists rather than assembled automatically, and it cites the research it reports on. #### Is Health Matters free? Yes. Health Matters is a free daily newsletter from TIME, available at time.com/newsletters. #### Who reads TIME's Health Matters newsletter? Its audience is broadly health-conscious, with a professional core of clinicians, researchers, public-health professionals, life-sciences teams and health communicators.  by [Jamie Ducharme](https://time.com/author/jamie-ducharme/)  ## Jamie Ducharme Ducharme is a contributor to TIME. Oct 24, 2018 2:47 PM UTC  Molly Cranna for TIME  by [Jamie Ducharme](https://time.com/author/jamie-ducharme/)  ## Jamie Ducharme Ducharme is a contributor to TIME. Oct 24, 2018 2:47 PM UTC More than a quarter of Mississippi children ages 10 to 17 are obese, giving the state the nation’s highest rate of youth obesity, [according to new data](https://stateofobesity.org/children1017/?utm%5Fsource=HCHW+National+List&utm%5Fcampaign=bbee585081-EMAIL%5FCAMPAIGN%5F2018%5F10%5F23%5F02%5F58&utm%5Fmedium=email&utm%5Fterm=0%5F8e6d10a4aa-bbee585081-162820713). Nationwide, nearly 16% of kids ages 10 to 17 have obesity, according to a report released Wednesday by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and based on data from the 2016-2017 National Survey of Children’s Health (NSCH). But rates varied significantly from state to state, ranging from Mississippi’s 26.1% to Utah’s 8.7%. The NSCH was redesigned in 2016, so it’s difficult to compare the current data with past iterations of the survey. The 2016-2017 rate of 15.8%, however, dipped slightly below the 2016 rate of 16.1%, though the change was not statistically significant. Eight of the 10 states with the highest youth obesity rates are located in the South, the data shows: Mississippi, West Virginia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Oklahoma, Texas, Georgia, Alabama and Iowa. (Ohio and Iowa, at numbers six and 10, were the outliers.) Meanwhile, nine of the 10 states with the lowest rates — all but number-four Minnesota — are in the West or Northeast: Utah, New Hampshire, Washington state, Wyoming, Colorado, Oregon, Connecticut, Montana and North Dakota. Obesity rates also differ depending on racial and ethnic background, [consistent with past trends](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2571048/). Nationally, 22.5% of black 10- to 17-year-olds are obese, followed by 20.6% of Hispanic children, 12.5% of white kids and 6.4% of Asian youth, the report says. The overall prevalence of youth obesity is cause for concern, since [excess weight is a risk factor](http://time.com/4759498/nonalcoholic-fatty-liver-disease/) for chronic conditions including type 2 diabetes, heart disease and even some cancers. Having obesity as a child may also push kids toward early puberty. And [research shows](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2854915/) that childhood obesity is a risk factor for obesity later in life, heightening the chances of developing health problems over time. While efforts to curtail childhood obesity — including implementing [healthy school lunch programs](http://time.com/4163451/healthier-school-lunch-study/) and adding more physical activity to school days — have been rolled out nationally, [rates among children ages 2 to 19 have only continued to rise](http://time.com/4306369/childhood-obesity-rates/) in recent years. If recent trends continue, [scientists estimate](http://time.com/5040902/childhood-obesity-in-america/) that more than half of children currently ages 2 to 19 will be obese by the time they turn 35. [By current estimates](http://time.com/4980225/obesity-rates-adults-children/), nearly 40% of U.S. adults are considered obese. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/5432973/states-childhood-obesity-rates/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/5432973/states-childhood-obesity-rates/"},"headline":"These Are the States with the Highest and Lowest Youth Obesity Rates","datePublished":"2018-10-24T14:47:58.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-23T21:49:25.202Z","description":"The national rate is nearly 16%","url":"https://time.com/5432973/states-childhood-obesity-rates/","keywords":["Obesity","onetime","healthytime"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt42b2d4cd8812b582/698878bca988ca42cb6b613e/scale-2-weight-body-image-diet-health-fitness-advice-betterment.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Jamie Ducharme","jobTitle":"Ducharme is a contributor to TIME.","url":"https://time.com/author/jamie-ducharme/"}],"articleSection":"Health","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt42b2d4cd8812b582/698878bca988ca42cb6b613e/scale-2-weight-body-image-diet-health-fitness-advice-betterment.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"scale-2-weight-body-image-diet-health-fitness-advice-betterment-motto-stock","caption":"scale-2-weight-body-image-diet-health-fitness-advice-betterment-motto-stock","creditText":"Molly Cranna for TIME","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/obesity/","name":"Obesity"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/5432973/states-childhood-obesity-rates/","name":"These Are the States with the Highest and Lowest Youth Obesity Rates"}}]}] ```