Datasets
World Health Organization, Global Health Observatory — Noncommunicable disease risk factors
Adult and child obesity, overweight and underweight; diabetes, physical activity and blood pressure — every country, every year.
Licence: WHO terms of use (attribution). Data date / retrieved: 27 May 2026.
United Nations, Department of Economic and Social Affairs, Population Division (2024). World Population Prospects 2024, Online Data.
Population by age, used to turn rates into numbers of people; country codes, life expectancy, median age.
Licence: CC BY 3.0 IGO.
National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES), 1999–2000 to Aug 2021–Aug 2023
CDC/NCHS. NHANES public-use data files DEMO and BMX (cycles 1999–2000 to 2015–2016, 2017–March 2020 pre-pandemic P_ files, 2021–2023 _L files).
Licence: Public domain (US Government work).
NHES I (1959–62), NHES II (1963–65), NHES III (1966–70), NHANES I (1971–74), NHANES II (1976–80), HHANES (1982–84), NHANES III (1988–94)
CDC/NCHS. Public-use data tapes 1001/1003, 2IDT, 3EDT, 4111, 5301, 6501, and NHANES III examination file, with CDC SAS input programs and codebooks.
Licence: Public domain (US Government work).
Youth Risk Behavior Survey (national, high school)
CDC. National YRBS data files 1999–2013 and SAS input programs.
Licence: Public domain (US Government work).
CDC, Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS), via Nutrition, Physical Activity, and Obesity data portal
Adults (18+) with obesity, self-reported height and weight
Licence: Public domain (U.S. Government work). Data date / retrieved: 30 September 2026.
Global School-based Student Health Survey (GSHS), 2003–2005 public-use files
WHO and CDC. Global School-based Student Health Survey public-use data files.
World Bank, World Development Indicators: GDP per person, urban population, under-5 overweight
Context indicators on every country page.
Licence: CC BY 4.0. Data date / retrieved: 30 September 2026.
Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) via Our World in Data
Daily calorie supply per person (FAO Food Balances, via Our World in Data)
Licence: CC BY 4.0. Data date / retrieved: 30 September 2026.
World Bank, Global SSB Tax Database (August 2023)
Which countries tax sugar-sweetened drinks, and since when.
Licence: CC BY 4.0. Data date / retrieved: 30 September 2026.
Mendoza Palechor & De la Hoz Manotas (2019), Estimation of obesity levels based on eating habits and physical condition, UCI Machine Learning Repository
Used only as a data-literacy example. 77% of records were generated synthetically and weight classes were balanced; not a population sample.
Licence: CC BY 4.0.
Publications we quote
- World Health Organization — Obesity and overweight (fact sheet) (8 December 2025; checked 30 September 2026)
- World Obesity Federation — World Obesity Atlas 2025 (March 2025; checked 30 September 2026)
- US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention — About Body Mass Index (BMI) (16 December 2025; checked 30 September 2026)
- US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention — Adult BMI Categories (19 March 2024; checked 30 September 2026)
Reference figures we check our calculations against
- NCHS Data Brief 508 (benchmark) — Emmerich SD, Fryar CD, Stierman B, Ogden CL. Obesity and severe obesity prevalence in adults: United States, August 2021–August 2023. NCHS Data Brief no 508. 2024.
- NCHS National Health Statistics Report 158 (benchmark) — Stierman B, et al. NHANES 2017–March 2020 prepandemic data files. National Health Statistics Reports no 158. 2021.
- NCHS Health E-Stat, adults 1960–1962 through 2017–2018 (benchmark) — Fryar CD, Carroll MD, Afful J. Prevalence of overweight, obesity, and severe obesity among adults aged 20 and over: United States, 1960–1962 through 2017–2018. NCHS Health E-Stats. 2020.
- NCHS Health E-Stat, children 1963–1965 through 2017–2018 (benchmark) — Fryar CD, Carroll MD, Afful J. Prevalence of overweight, obesity, and severe obesity among children and adolescents aged 2–19 years: United States, 1963–1965 through 2017–2018. NCHS Health E-Stats. 2020.
- Age adjustment weights (2000 projected U.S. population) — Klein RJ, Schoenborn CA. Age adjustment using the 2000 projected U.S. population. Healthy People Statistical Notes no 20. NCHS. 2001.
- CDC 2000 BMI-for-age growth chart LMS parameters — CDC/NCHS. 2000 CDC growth charts for the United States, BMI-for-age data file.
- WHO 2007 growth reference, BMI-for-age 5–19 years — de Onis M, et al. Development of a WHO growth reference for school-aged children and adolescents. Bull World Health Organ 2007;85:660–7. LMS table from https://github.com/WorldHealthOrganization/anthroplus.
- Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance — United States, 2013 (benchmark) — Kann L, et al. Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance — United States, 2013. MMWR Surveill Summ 2014;63(SS-4).
Want the processed numbers? Visit downloads. Please credit the original sources above (and ObesitySurvey.com for derived figures) when you reuse them.
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