Africa · Country profile
Obesity in South Sudan
8.9% of adults live with obesity (2024). That ranks 179th highest of 199 countries.
8.9%
of adults live with obesity (2024)
Likely range 5.6%–12.9%
Source: WHO
524 thousand
adults with obesity (estimated number)
WHO rate × UN population
Source: WHO; UN WPP 2024
4.7%
of children & teens (5–19) live with obesity (2024)
Source: WHO
#179
highest adult obesity out of 199 countries
#1 = highest share
Source: WHO
The story of South Sudan in numbers
In 2024, about 8.9% of adults in South Sudan were living with obesity — about 1 in 11 adults, according to World Health Organization estimates (the likely range is 5.6% to 12.9%). That is roughly 524 thousand people aged 18 and over.
That is lower than the world average of 16.2%, and ranks 179th highest out of 199 countries. It is below the average for WHO’s Africa region (12.7%).
Back in 1980, the figure was 1.2%. Since then it has gone up by 7.7 percentage points — about 7.4 times the 1980 level. In people, that is a change from about 23 thousand to 524 thousand adults, partly because the population itself changed.
Women are more likely to live with obesity than men: 12.1% compared with 5.3%.
Among children and teenagers aged 5 to 19, 4.7% were living with obesity in 2024, compared with 0.4% in 1980 — around 217 thousand young people.
Obesity is not the only weight problem here: 17.4% of adults are underweight (BMI under 18.5). Health experts call this mix the “double burden” of malnutrition.
For context, 8.7% of adults had diabetes in 2022, 16.3% of adults did not get enough physical activity in 2022 and the food supply provided about 2,391 calories per person per day in 2022. These numbers don’t prove what causes obesity, but they help paint the picture.
South Sudan has a national tax on sugar-sweetened drinks, first introduced in 2009, according to the World Bank’s Global SSB Tax Database.
How it changed
Adults with obesity in South Sudan: men, women and the world
What this meansSince 1980, the share of men went from 0.6% to 5.3%, and women from 1.8% to 12.1%.
- Men
- Women
- World
Show the numbers as a table
| Year | Men | Women | World |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1980 | 0.6% | 1.8% | 5.4% |
| 1985 | 0.7% | 2.1% | 6.0% |
| 1990 | 1.0% | 2.5% | 6.7% |
| 1995 | 1.3% | 3.1% | 7.6% |
| 2000 | 1.7% | 4.1% | 8.7% |
| 2005 | 2.2% | 5.3% | 10.1% |
| 2010 | 2.8% | 6.8% | 11.5% |
| 2015 | 3.4% | 8.5% | 13.0% |
| 2020 | 4.3% | 10.4% | 14.6% |
| 2024 | 5.3% | 12.1% | 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 South Sudan
What this meansSince 1980, the share of boys went from 0.3% to 4.6%, and girls from 0.5% to 4.9%.
- Boys
- Girls
BMI-for-age more than 2 standard deviations above the WHO growth reference median.
Source: WHO Global Health Observatory.
South Sudan compared (2024)
What this meansHow South Sudan’s adult obesity rate compares with its region, countries at a similar income level, and the world.
- World16.2%
- Africa (WHO region)12.7%
- Low income countries10.1%
- South Sudan8.9%
Source: WHO Global Health Observatory.
Food supply: calories per person per day in South Sudan
What this meansThe food available per person went from 2,347 calories a day in 2019 to 2,391 in 2022. This counts food available, not food actually eaten.
- South Sudan
- World
Countries ranked nearby
- 176. Uganda9.5%
- 177. China9.3%
- 178. Laos9.2%
- 179. South Sudan8.9%
- 180. South Korea8.4%
- 181. Sierra Leone8.2%
- 182. Myanmar8.1%
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