Western Pacific · Country profile
Obesity in Marshall Islands
42.0% of adults live with obesity (2024). That ranks 17th highest of 199 countries.
42.0%
of adults live with obesity (2024)
Likely range 37.9%–45.9%
Source: WHO
9,000
adults with obesity (estimated number)
WHO rate × UN population
Source: WHO; UN WPP 2024
11.7%
of children & teens (5–19) live with obesity (2024)
Source: WHO
#17
highest adult obesity out of 199 countries
#1 = highest share
Source: WHO
The story of Marshall Islands in numbers
In 2024, about 42.0% of adults in Marshall Islands were living with obesity — about 1 in 2 adults, according to World Health Organization estimates (the likely range is 37.9% to 45.9%). That is roughly 9,000 people aged 18 and over.
That is higher than the world average of 16.2%, and ranks 17th highest out of 199 countries. It is above the average for WHO’s Western Pacific region (9.7%).
Back in 1980, the figure was 27.8%. Since then it has gone up by 14.2 percentage points. In people, that is a change from about 3,000 to 9,000 adults, partly because the population itself changed.
Women are more likely to live with obesity than men: 51.9% compared with 32.1%.
Among children and teenagers aged 5 to 19, 11.7% were living with obesity in 2024, compared with 2.9% in 1980 — around 2,000 young people.
For context, 29.6% of adults had diabetes in 2022, 24.4% of adults did not get enough physical activity in 2022 and the food supply provided about 3,321 calories per person per day in 2023. These numbers don’t prove what causes obesity, but they help paint the picture.
Marshall Islands has a national tax on sugar-sweetened drinks, first introduced in 1989, according to the World Bank’s Global SSB Tax Database.
How it changed
Adults with obesity in Marshall Islands: men, women and the world
What this meansSince 1980, the share of men went from 20.3% to 32.1%, and women from 35.8% to 51.9%.
- Men
- Women
- World
Show the numbers as a table
| Year | Men | Women | World |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1980 | 20.3% | 35.8% | 5.4% |
| 1985 | 23.5% | 38.3% | 6.0% |
| 1990 | 26.7% | 40.7% | 6.7% |
| 1995 | 29.0% | 42.8% | 7.6% |
| 2000 | 30.5% | 44.6% | 8.7% |
| 2005 | 31.6% | 46.3% | 10.1% |
| 2010 | 32.4% | 47.8% | 11.5% |
| 2015 | 32.5% | 49.4% | 13.0% |
| 2020 | 32.2% | 50.9% | 14.6% |
| 2024 | 32.1% | 51.9% | 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 Marshall Islands
What this meansSince 1980, the share of boys went from 2.9% to 11.5%, and girls from 2.9% to 11.9%.
- Boys
- Girls
BMI-for-age more than 2 standard deviations above the WHO growth reference median.
Source: WHO Global Health Observatory.
Marshall Islands compared (2024)
What this meansHow Marshall Islands’s adult obesity rate compares with its region, countries at a similar income level, and the world.
- Marshall Islands42.0%
- Upper-middle income countries16.7%
- World16.2%
- Western Pacific (WHO region)9.7%
Source: WHO Global Health Observatory.
Food supply: calories per person per day in Marshall Islands
What this meansThe food available per person went from 2,962 calories a day in 2019 to 3,321 in 2023. This counts food available, not food actually eaten.
- Marshall Islands
- World
Countries ranked nearby
- 14. Egypt43.9%
- 15. Belize43.4%
- 16. Puerto Rico42.4%
- 17. Marshall Islands42.0%
- 17. Qatar42.0%
- 19. United States41.0%
- 20. Chile40.5%
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