--- title: More Than Half of the World Will Be Obese By 2035: Report description: A new study predicts a global obesity rate of 51% by 2035, at an estimated cost of $4 trillion per year. canonical: https://time.com/6264865/global-obesity-rates-increasing/ author: Jeffrey Kluger article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2023-03-21T20:03:45.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-24T15:36:57.500Z article:section: Health og:title: More Than Half of the World Will Be Obese By 2035, Report Says og:description: The estimated cost? $4 trillion per year og:url: https://time.com/6264865/global-obesity-rates-increasing/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltee79ab624a16d1d1/698a3b4b22fb856685e2e814/analog-weighing-machine.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 2400 og:image:height: 1350 og:image:alt: The picture shows the screen of an analog weighing machine used in clinics and hospitals. og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: More Than Half of the World Will Be Obese By 2035, Report Says twitter:description: The estimated cost? $4 trillion per year twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltee79ab624a16d1d1/698a3b4b22fb856685e2e814/analog-weighing-machine.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # More Than Half of the World Will Be Obese By 2035, Report Says > 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 [Jeffrey Kluger](https://time.com/author/jeffrey-kluger/)  ## Jeffrey Kluger Editor at Large Mar 21, 2023 8:03 PM UTC  The screen of an analog weighing machine used in clinics and hospitals. The screen of an analog weighing machine used in clinics and hospitals. Getty Images  by [Jeffrey Kluger](https://time.com/author/jeffrey-kluger/)  ## Jeffrey Kluger Editor at Large Mar 21, 2023 8:03 PM UTC Obesity has often been thought of as a problem of the developed world, with wealthy countries eating themselves into a state of ill-health with an abundance of [ultraprocessed foods](https://time.com/6245237/ultra-processed-foods-diet-bad/), and poorer ones more often suffering from food insecurity. But that’s no longer true. According to a March [report from the World Obesity Atlas](https://s3-eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/wof-files/World%5FObesity%5FAtlas%5F2023%5FReport.pdf) (WOA), more than half of the global population—51%, or over 4 billion people—will have obesity by 2035, and the condition will touch all regions and continents of the world. The total cost of treating illnesses related to obesity will be an estimated $4 trillion per year, which is about how much the COVID-19 pandemic cost the world in health care expenses in 2020\. The new projection marks a sharp jump from current 2023 numbers. Right now, about 3.12 billion people (39% of the global population) have obesity. But 15 years ago, in 2008, the [global obesity rate](https://www.fmhs.auckland.ac.nz/assets/fmhs/School%20of%20Population%20Health/documents/global-obesity-pandemic-lancet-2011-swinburn-et-al.pdf) was 23.9%, affecting 1.63 billion people. The WOA, a non-governmental organization which files its reports with both the World Health Organization and the U.N., surveyed current obesity rates and trends in 180 different countries to arrive at its newly projected figures. The nations with the highest obesity rates tend to cluster in the South Pacific, with Kiribati and Tonga leading the world in projected 2035 obesity rates at 67%, followed by Samoa at 66%, French Polynesia at 65%, and Micronesia at 64%. The U.S. registers near the top, with a rate of 58%. The lowest projected obesity rates are found in Asia, with Vietnam at 7%, followed by Japan at 8%, Singapore at 9%, and both India and Bangladesh at 11%. **Read More**: [_Why You’re Not Losing Weight_](https://time.com/6248588/weight-loss-strategies/) Especially affected by the growing epidemic will be children ages 5-19, in whom obesity rates are predicted to double, climbing from 10% to 20% for boys and 8% to 18% for girls. Even in Southeast Asia, with its relatively low projected obesity rates, weight gain in the youngest cohort is expected to be significant, with obesity rates among boys increasing from 5% to 16% and in girls from 3% to 11%. In the South Pacific, a bad problem will likely only grow worse, as boys are predicted to go from a 19% obesity rate to 41% and girls to climb from 9% to 28%. The Americas will see their numbers grow as well, with the share of obese boys rising from 20% to 33% and girls climbing from 16% to 26%. The WOA posits a lot of causes for the current trend beyond the growing global popularity of cheap, highly processed Western style food. Also to blame are so-called obesogens, or chemical pollutants like bisphenol A (BPA) that act as endocrine disruptors and are found in plastics, food packaging, household furnishings, paints, cosmetics, and more. Things only get worse when obesogens and poor diet co-occur. **Read More:** [_Best Mattresses for Heavy People to Sleep Soundly All Night_](https://time.com/shopping/article/best-mattresses-for-heavy-people/) “The increase in ultraprocessed foods in countries globally, particularly lower-middle income countries,” the report states, “is likely to increase plastic-based products \[in food packaging\] and plastic waste. In turn, the exposure to obesogenic pollutants may rise rapidly.” That is only part of the report’s discouraging takeaway. “Every nation is affected by obesity, with some lower income countries showing the highest increases in the last decade,” the authors write. “No country has reported a decline in obesity prevalence across their entire population. While preventing and treating obesity requires financial investment, the cost of failing to prevent and treat obesity will be far higher.” ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/6264865/global-obesity-rates-increasing/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/6264865/global-obesity-rates-increasing/"},"headline":"More Than Half of the World Will Be Obese By 2035, Report Says","datePublished":"2023-03-21T20:03:45.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-24T15:36:57.500Z","description":"The estimated cost? $4 trillion per year.","url":"https://time.com/6264865/global-obesity-rates-increasing/","keywords":["Diet & Nutrition","healthscienceclimate"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltee79ab624a16d1d1/698a3b4b22fb856685e2e814/analog-weighing-machine.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Jeffrey Kluger","jobTitle":"Editor at Large","url":"https://time.com/author/jeffrey-kluger/"}],"articleSection":"Health","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltee79ab624a16d1d1/698a3b4b22fb856685e2e814/analog-weighing-machine.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"The picture shows the screen of an analog weighing machine used in clinics and hospitals.","caption":"The picture shows the screen of an analog weighing machine used in clinics and hospitals.","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/dietnutrition/","name":"Diet & Nutrition"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/6264865/global-obesity-rates-increasing/","name":"More Than Half of the World Will Be Obese By 2035, Report Says"}}]}] ```