Roughly 70% of American adults are either overweight or obese. Breaking that down: about 31% of adults are overweight (BMI of 25 to 29.9), and another 40% have obesity (BMI of 30 or higher), based on national survey data from the CDC. That means fewer than one in three American adults fall into what’s classified as a “healthy” weight range.
What the Latest Numbers Show
The most recent CDC data, collected between August 2021 and August 2023, puts the adult obesity rate at 40.3%. Within that group, 9.4% have severe obesity, defined as a BMI of 40 or higher. The overweight category (BMI between 25 and just under 30) holds steady at around 31% of adults, based on slightly earlier survey cycles.
These figures come from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES), which doesn’t rely on people self-reporting their weight. Researchers actually measure participants’ height and weight, which makes the data more reliable than phone surveys where people tend to underestimate.
How Overweight and Obesity Are Defined
The CDC uses Body Mass Index to sort adults into weight categories. BMI is calculated from your height and weight. For adults 20 and older, a BMI between 25 and 29.9 counts as overweight, and 30 or above counts as obese. It’s a blunt tool. BMI doesn’t distinguish between muscle and fat, and it doesn’t account for where fat is stored on the body. Still, it remains the standard measure used in population-level health tracking.
Rates Among Children and Teens
About 1 in 5 children and adolescents ages 2 to 19 have obesity, which translates to roughly 14.7 million young people. The rates climb with age: 12.7% of children ages 2 to 5 have obesity, 20.7% of those ages 6 to 11, and 22.2% of adolescents ages 12 to 19. For children, obesity is measured differently than for adults. Instead of a fixed BMI cutoff, it’s based on where a child falls relative to others their same age and sex, with the 95th percentile or above qualifying as obese.
How Much the Numbers Have Changed
The obesity rate has roughly tripled since the 1960s and 1970s, when only about 13% of adults qualified. By the early 2000s, it had crossed 30%. Now it sits above 40%. What’s notable is that the “overweight but not obese” category has stayed relatively flat over this period, hovering around 31 to 33%. The growth has been driven almost entirely by more people crossing from overweight into obese, and from obese into severely obese.
Differences by State
Obesity rates vary significantly depending on where you live, but no state is below 25%. As of 2024, every single U.S. state and territory has an obesity rate of at least one in four adults. Mississippi and West Virginia sit at the top, both at 40% or higher. Eight states and the District of Columbia have the lowest rates, falling between 25% and just under 30%. The remaining states cluster in the middle, with 22 states between 30% and 35%, and 17 states between 35% and 40%.
The Financial Cost
Obesity adds an estimated $147 billion to $210 billion in medical costs per year in the United States. On an individual level, the extra healthcare spending is uneven: obesity was associated with an additional $4,879 per year in medical costs for women and $2,646 for men, based on 2010 estimates. For people with severe obesity on Medicaid, the program spent roughly $1,980 more per beneficiary compared to those without obesity.
These costs come from higher rates of conditions closely linked to excess weight: type 2 diabetes, heart disease, joint problems, sleep apnea, and certain cancers. The expenses show up in more prescriptions, more doctor visits, and more hospitalizations over a lifetime.