--- title: Obesity in America: See Changes by State Over 25 Years description: After 25 years of steady increases, obesity rates are down in four states, and mostly stable elsewhere, according to a new report. canonical: https://time.com/4476624/obesity-rates-state-america/ author: David Johnson article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-09-01T21:58:28.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-23T00:21:47.263Z article:section: Health og:title: See How America Has Gotten More Obese in the Past 25 Years og:description: Obesity rates have grown dramatically in the past couple of decades og:url: https://time.com/4476624/obesity-rates-state-america/ 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: See How America Has Gotten More Obese in the Past 25 Years twitter:description: Obesity rates have grown dramatically in the past couple of decades twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- # See How America Has Gotten More Obese in the Past 25 Years by [David Johnson](https://time.com/author/dave-johnson/) ## David Johnson Sep 1, 2016 9:58 PM UTC by [David Johnson](https://time.com/author/dave-johnson/) ## David Johnson Sep 1, 2016 9:58 PM UTC After 25 years of steady increases, obesity rates are [down in four states](http://time.com/4475882/obesity-rates-by-state/), and mostly stable elsewhere. Kansas and Kentucky were the only two states with increases in the past year, according to a [new report](http://stateofobesity.org/adult-obesity/) based on federal data. While rates have plateaued in some places, researchers said they are still alarmingly high, with wide disparities from one part of the country to another. In Southeastern states, like Louisiana and Mississippi, more than 1 in 3 people were obese in 2015\. But in Colorado, only 1 in 5 people were obese, with similar rates in neighboring West Coast states. In both areas, rates have more than doubled since 1990. Use the timeline to see data in five-year intervals. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4476624/obesity-rates-state-america/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4476624/obesity-rates-state-america/"},"headline":"See How America Has Gotten More Obese in the Past 25 Years","datePublished":"2016-09-01T21:58:28.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-23T00:21:47.263Z","description":"Obesity rates have grown dramatically in the past couple of decades","url":"https://time.com/4476624/obesity-rates-state-america/","keywords":["health","Obesity"],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"David Johnson","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/dave-johnson/"}],"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/health/","name":"health"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4476624/obesity-rates-state-america/","name":"See How America Has Gotten More Obese in the Past 25 Years"}}]}] ```