Americas · Country profile
Obesity in Dominica
32.5% of adults live with obesity (2024). That ranks 48th highest of 199 countries.
32.5%
of adults live with obesity (2024)
Likely range 26.1%–39.4%
Source: WHO
17 thousand
adults with obesity (estimated number)
WHO rate × UN population
Source: WHO; UN WPP 2024
18.1%
of children & teens (5–19) live with obesity (2024)
Source: WHO
#48
highest adult obesity out of 199 countries
#1 = highest share
Source: WHO
The story of Dominica in numbers
In 2024, about 32.5% of adults in Dominica were living with obesity — about 1 in 3 adults, according to World Health Organization estimates (the likely range is 26.1% to 39.4%). That is roughly 17 thousand people aged 18 and over.
That is higher than the world average of 16.2%, and ranks 48th highest out of 199 countries. It is about level with the average for WHO’s Americas region (34.4%).
Back in 1980, the figure was 8.3%. Since then it has gone up by 24.2 percentage points — about 3.9 times the 1980 level. In people, that is a change from about 3,000 to 17 thousand adults, partly because the population itself changed.
Women are more likely to live with obesity than men: 46.3% compared with 18.8%.
Among children and teenagers aged 5 to 19, 18.1% were living with obesity in 2024, compared with 3.1% in 1980 — around 2,000 young people.
For context, 22.7% of adults had diabetes in 2022, 30.5% of adults did not get enough physical activity in 2022 and the food supply provided about 3,278 calories per person per day in 2022. These numbers don’t prove what causes obesity, but they help paint the picture.
Dominica has a national tax on sugar-sweetened drinks, first introduced in 2015, according to the World Bank’s Global SSB Tax Database.
How it changed
Adults with obesity in Dominica: men, women and the world
What this meansSince 1980, the share of men went from 2.6% to 18.8%, and women from 13.1% to 46.3%.
- Men
- Women
- World
Show the numbers as a table
| Year | Men | Women | World |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1980 | 2.6% | 13.1% | 5.4% |
| 1985 | 3.3% | 15.8% | 6.0% |
| 1990 | 4.3% | 19.0% | 6.7% |
| 1995 | 5.7% | 22.7% | 7.6% |
| 2000 | 7.6% | 26.9% | 8.7% |
| 2005 | 9.7% | 31.2% | 10.1% |
| 2010 | 11.9% | 35.3% | 11.5% |
| 2015 | 14.1% | 39.3% | 13.0% |
| 2020 | 16.5% | 43.3% | 14.6% |
| 2024 | 18.8% | 46.3% | 16.2% |
Age-standardized WHO estimates. Shaded bands show the 95% uncertainty range.
Source: WHO Global Health Observatory.
Children & teens (5–19) with obesity in Dominica
What this meansSince 1980, the share of boys went from 2.6% to 16.0%, and girls from 3.6% to 20.3%.
- Boys
- Girls
BMI-for-age more than 2 standard deviations above the WHO growth reference median.
Source: WHO Global Health Observatory.
Dominica compared (2024)
What this meansHow Dominica’s adult obesity rate compares with its region, countries at a similar income level, and the world.
- Americas (WHO region)34.4%
- Dominica32.5%
- Upper-middle income countries16.7%
- World16.2%
Source: WHO Global Health Observatory.
Food supply: calories per person per day in Dominica
What this meansThe food available per person went from 1,756 calories a day in 1961 to 3,278 in 2022. This counts food available, not food actually eaten.
- Dominica
- World
Countries ranked nearby
- 45. Libya33.7%
- 46. Syria33.0%
- 47. Costa Rica32.7%
- 48. Dominica32.5%
- 49. Romania32.4%
- 50. El Salvador32.2%
- 51. Honduras31.8%
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