--- description: No country on earth has reduced obesity rates in more than three decades title: A Third of the World is Now Obese or Overweight image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltb640972d1158d5de/6986892d361760fd4a90b53f/scale-weight.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  * [Health](/section/health/) ## Health Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close * [health](/tag/health/) ## health Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close # A Third of the World is Now Obese or Overweight  by [Denver Nicks](/author/denver-nicks/)  ## Denver Nicks Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close May 28, 2014 11:25 PM CUT  Broken scales. Broken scales.Getty Images  by [Denver Nicks](/author/denver-nicks/)  ## Denver Nicks Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close May 28, 2014 11:25 PM CUT 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 "undefined"), 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/ "undefined") 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"}}]}] ```