Europe · Country profile
Obesity in United Kingdom
27.4% of adults live with obesity (2024). That ranks 77th highest of 199 countries.
27.4%
of adults live with obesity (2024)
Likely range 25.1%–29.8%
Source: WHO
16 million
adults with obesity (estimated number)
WHO rate × UN population
Source: WHO; UN WPP 2024
11.3%
of children & teens (5–19) live with obesity (2024)
Source: WHO
#77
highest adult obesity out of 199 countries
#1 = highest share
Source: WHO
The story of United Kingdom in numbers
In 2024, about 27.4% of adults in United Kingdom were living with obesity — about 1 in 4 adults, according to World Health Organization estimates (the likely range is 25.1% to 29.8%). That is roughly 16 million people aged 18 and over.
That is higher than the world average of 16.2%, and ranks 77th highest out of 199 countries. It is above the average for WHO’s Europe region (20.9%).
Back in 1980, the figure was 6.9%. Since then it has gone up by 20.5 percentage points — about 4.0 times the 1980 level. In people, that is a change from about 3.1 million to 16 million adults, partly because the population itself changed.
Women are more likely to live with obesity than men: 28.9% compared with 25.9%.
Among children and teenagers aged 5 to 19, 11.3% were living with obesity in 2024, compared with 1.5% in 1980 — around 1.4 million young people.
For context, 8.8% of adults had diabetes in 2022, 19.0% of adults did not get enough physical activity in 2022 and the food supply provided about 3,435 calories per person per day in 2023. These numbers don’t prove what causes obesity, but they help paint the picture.
United Kingdom has a national tax on sugar-sweetened drinks, first introduced in 2018, according to the World Bank’s Global SSB Tax Database.
How it changed
Adults with obesity in United Kingdom: men, women and the world
What this meansSince 1980, the share of men went from 5.5% to 25.9%, and women from 8.2% to 28.9%.
- Men
- Women
- World
Show the numbers as a table
| Year | Men | Women | World |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1980 | 5.5% | 8.2% | 5.4% |
| 1985 | 7.6% | 10.6% | 6.0% |
| 1990 | 10.3% | 13.5% | 6.7% |
| 1995 | 13.9% | 16.7% | 7.6% |
| 2000 | 17.9% | 20.1% | 8.7% |
| 2005 | 21.5% | 23.0% | 10.1% |
| 2010 | 23.7% | 25.1% | 11.5% |
| 2015 | 24.7% | 26.5% | 13.0% |
| 2020 | 25.4% | 27.9% | 14.6% |
| 2024 | 25.9% | 28.9% | 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 United Kingdom
What this meansSince 1980, the share of boys went from 1.5% to 12.4%, and girls from 1.6% to 10.1%.
- Boys
- Girls
BMI-for-age more than 2 standard deviations above the WHO growth reference median.
Source: WHO Global Health Observatory.
United Kingdom compared (2024)
What this meansHow United Kingdom’s adult obesity rate compares with its region, countries at a similar income level, and the world.
- United Kingdom27.4%
- High income countries24.7%
- Europe (WHO region)20.9%
- World16.2%
Source: WHO Global Health Observatory.
Food supply: calories per person per day in United Kingdom
What this meansThe food available per person went from 3,241 calories a day in 1961 to 3,435 in 2023. This counts food available, not food actually eaten.
- United Kingdom
- World
Countries ranked nearby
- 75. Ireland27.9%
- 76. Azerbaijan27.6%
- 77. Greece27.4%
- 77. United Kingdom27.4%
- 79. North Macedonia26.8%
- 80. Czechia26.3%
- 81. Slovakia26.1%
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