Africa · Country profile
Obesity in Equatorial Guinea
19.2% of adults live with obesity (2024). That ranks 125th highest of 199 countries.
19.2%
of adults live with obesity (2024)
Likely range 14.1%–25.3%
Source: WHO
203 thousand
adults with obesity (estimated number)
WHO rate × UN population
Source: WHO; UN WPP 2024
4.9%
of children & teens (5–19) live with obesity (2024)
Source: WHO
#125
highest adult obesity out of 199 countries
#1 = highest share
Source: WHO
The story of Equatorial Guinea in numbers
In 2024, about 19.2% of adults in Equatorial Guinea were living with obesity — about 1 in 5 adults, according to World Health Organization estimates (the likely range is 14.1% to 25.3%). That is roughly 203 thousand people aged 18 and over.
That is higher than the world average of 16.2%, and ranks 125th highest out of 199 countries. It is above the average for WHO’s Africa region (12.7%).
Back in 1980, the figure was 3.5%. Since then it has gone up by 15.7 percentage points — about 5.5 times the 1980 level. In people, that is a change from about 5,000 to 203 thousand adults, partly because the population itself changed.
Women are more likely to live with obesity than men: 32.1% compared with 8.5%.
Among children and teenagers aged 5 to 19, 4.9% were living with obesity in 2024, compared with 0.4% in 1980 — around 31 thousand young people.
Obesity is not the only weight problem here: 9.4% of adults are underweight (BMI under 18.5). Health experts call this mix the “double burden” of malnutrition.
For context, 13.4% of adults had diabetes in 2022 and 19.5% of adults did not get enough physical activity in 2022. These numbers don’t prove what causes obesity, but they help paint the picture.
Equatorial Guinea has a national tax on sugar-sweetened drinks, first introduced in 2020, according to the World Bank’s Global SSB Tax Database.
How it changed
Adults with obesity in Equatorial Guinea: men, women and the world
What this meansSince 1980, the share of men went from 1.0% to 8.5%, and women from 5.6% to 32.1%.
- Men
- Women
- World
Show the numbers as a table
| Year | Men | Women | World |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1980 | 1.0% | 5.6% | 5.4% |
| 1985 | 1.3% | 7.2% | 6.0% |
| 1990 | 1.8% | 9.3% | 6.7% |
| 1995 | 2.4% | 11.9% | 7.6% |
| 2000 | 3.3% | 15.2% | 8.7% |
| 2005 | 4.3% | 18.8% | 10.1% |
| 2010 | 5.2% | 22.2% | 11.5% |
| 2015 | 6.1% | 25.5% | 13.0% |
| 2020 | 7.3% | 29.1% | 14.6% |
| 2024 | 8.5% | 32.1% | 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 Equatorial Guinea
What this meansSince 1980, the share of boys went from 0.4% to 5.2%, and girls from 0.5% to 4.6%.
- Boys
- Girls
BMI-for-age more than 2 standard deviations above the WHO growth reference median.
Source: WHO Global Health Observatory.
Equatorial Guinea compared (2024)
What this meansHow Equatorial Guinea’s adult obesity rate compares with its region, countries at a similar income level, and the world.
- Equatorial Guinea19.2%
- Upper-middle income countries16.7%
- World16.2%
- Africa (WHO region)12.7%
Source: WHO Global Health Observatory.
Countries ranked nearby
- 122. Norway20.2%
- 123. Botswana19.8%
- 123. Slovenia19.8%
- 125. Equatorial Guinea19.2%
- 126. Luxembourg19.0%
- 127. Namibia18.3%
- 128. Portugal18.1%
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