Obesity Rate
Obesity Rate by country
Commentary
Notable countries
Oceania dominates the top of the ranking, led by Tonga at 72.06%, followed by Nauru at 70.79%, Tuvalu at 64.13%, and Samoa at 62.99%. At the other end, Vietnam has the lowest obesity rate at 2.04%, with Ethiopia (2.58%) and Timor-Leste (3.05%) also among the lowest. A notable surprise is that Egypt, at 43.1%, is the only African country in the top 10, while Japan’s 5.47% places it among the 10 lowest.
Regional trends
By continent, Oceania stands out clearly with the highest average obesity rate at 43.93%, far above every other region. North America (32.59%) and South America (29.67%) also sit well above the global mean of 22.68, while Europe (21.1%) and Asia (20.54%) are closer to it. Africa has the lowest continental average at 14.45%, and it also supplies many of the countries in the bottom 10.
Data source
The data come from the WHO GHO 2022 and measure obesity as a percentage of adults. Coverage includes 191 countries. A key caveat is that this is a country-level snapshot, so it does not show differences within countries or changes over time.
Interpretation
Higher values mean a larger share of adults are classified as obese, while lower values mean a smaller share. The wide spread between Tonga’s 72.06% and Vietnam’s 2.04% shows very large cross-country differences in this health indicator. Overall, the data suggest obesity is especially prevalent in Oceania and relatively uncommon in much of Africa and parts of Asia, but regional averages still mask substantial variation between individual countries.