--- title: Number of Obese Children Rises: World Health Organization description: At least 41 million children across the globe who are under the age of 5 are obese or overweight, especially in developing countries. canonical: https://time.com/4192828/obesity-children-who/ author: Melissa Chan article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-01-25T19:11:12.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-03-31T09:08:47.564Z article:section: Health og:title: The World's Children Are Getting Fatter, Health Body Says og:description: At least 41 million children across the globe are obese or overweight og:url: https://time.com/4192828/obesity-children-who/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: TIME og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: The World's Children Are Getting Fatter, Health Body Says twitter:description: At least 41 million children across the globe are obese or overweight twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- # The World's Children Are Getting Fatter, WHO Says  by [Melissa Chan](https://time.com/author/melissa-chan/)  ## Melissa Chan Jan 25, 2016 7:11 PM UTC  by [Melissa Chan](https://time.com/author/melissa-chan/)  ## Melissa Chan Jan 25, 2016 7:11 PM UTC At least 41 million children across the globe who are under the age of 5 are [obese or overweight](http://www.who.int/end-childhood-obesity/news/launch-final-report/en/), according to the World Health Organization (WHO), an increase of 10 million over the past quarter century. The public health arm of the United Nations released the latest figures on Monday in a report meant to help governments reverse the rising trend of [obesity in children](http://time.com/4105708/obesity-8-year-olds-hearts/). The number of overweight or obese children in developing countries has more than doubled from 7.5 million to 15.5 million since 1990, the WHO said. Nearly half of all obese children lived in Asia in 2014, according to the organization. “Overweight and obesity [impact on a child’s quality of life](http://time.com/3855820/obese-children-study/), as they face a wide range of barriers, including physical, psychological and health consequences,” Commission on Ending Childhood Obesity co-chair Sania Nishtar said in a statement. “We know that obesity can impact on educational attainment too and this, combined with the likelihood that they will remain obese into adulthood, poses major health and economic consequences for them, their families and society as a whole.” ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4192828/obesity-children-who/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4192828/obesity-children-who/"},"headline":"The World's Children Are Getting Fatter, WHO Says","datePublished":"2016-01-25T19:11:12.000Z","dateModified":"2026-03-31T09:08:47.564Z","description":"At least 41 million children across the globe are obese or overweight","url":"https://time.com/4192828/obesity-children-who/","keywords":["Nutrition"],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Melissa Chan","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/melissa-chan/"}],"articleSection":"Health","image":[],"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/nutrition/","name":"Nutrition"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4192828/obesity-children-who/","name":"The World's Children Are Getting Fatter, WHO Says"}}]}] ```