Being overweight, including pre-obesity and obesity, is a major risk factor for various non-communicable diseases including diabetes, cardiovascular diseases and certain cancers. High consumption of calories-dense food and increasingly sedentary lifestyles have contributed to growing global obesity rates. The rate of growth has been highest in early adulthood and has affected all population groups, in particular women and those with lower levels of education (Afshin et al., 2017[1]). High body mass index (BMI) has been estimated to cause 4.7 million deaths worldwide (Global Burden of Disease Collaborative Network, 2018[2])
Based on measured data, 58% of adults were overweight or obese in 2017 on average across 23 OECD countries with comparable data (Figure 4.11). For Chile, Mexico and the United States this figure exceeds 70%. Conversely, in Japan and Korea, less than 35% of adults were overweight or obese. The remaining 13 OECD countries include self-reported data, with rates ranging from 42% in Switzerland to 65% in Iceland. These estimates, though, are less reliable and typically lower than those based on measured data. For both measured and self-reported data, men are more likely than women to be overweight.
The proportion of overweight adults has been gradually increasing in most OECD countries since the early 2000s, including in countries where rates are relatively low (Figure 4.12). In Japan and Korea, this proportion has increased by 2.1 and 4.2 percentage points, respectively, between 2000 and 2017. In countries with relatively high rates of adults overweight, this figure ranged from 2.3 percentage points in Canada to 11.9 in Chile.
Adults with a low level of education are more likely to be overweight than those with a tertiary education level or above in all 27 OECD countries examined (Figure 4.13). The difference in the proportion of overweight adults by education level was greatest in Luxembourg, Spain and France, where the gap was greater than 15 percentage points.
OECD member countries have implemented a suite of regulatory and non-regulatory initiatives to reduce overweight population rates. Prominent examples include mass media campaigns to promote the benefits of healthy eating; promotion of nutritional education and skills; ‘sin’ taxes on energy-dense food and drink items to discourage consumption; food labelling to communicate nutritional value; and agreements with the food industry to improve the nutritional value of products. Policymakers are also exploring initiatives that address the social determinants of being overweight. For example, the Healthy Food Financing Initiative in the United States aims to improve access to healthy foods in underserved areas. Despite these efforts, the overweight epidemic has not been reversed, highlighting the issue’s complexity (OECD, 2019[3]).
