× Close Obese & Overweight Adults

These maps show data on prevalence and %-change of obesity and overweight in adults ages 20 and older ranging form 1980 to 2013. Datasets for several years can be viewed by gender or for both sexes. Click on the Choose Dataset menu item to switch between views. The data was published by the Guardian on May 29, 2014.

The countries with the largest increases in obese and overweight adults of both sexes from 1980 to 2013 are Bahrain 25% (small island to the east of Saudi Arabia - click to zoom), Ghana and Guinea-Bissau both at 20%. In just 7 countries the prevalence of obese and overweight adults decreased in the following order from largest to lowest decrease:

Bulgaria: -8%

Central African Republic: -4%

Congo: -3%

Andorra: -3%

Argentina: -2%

Barbados: -2%

Swaziland: -1%

As if these numbers were not alarming enough, let's also look at the countries with the highest prevalence in 2013 for both sexes. The South Sea nations Tonga (86%), Samoa (84%), and Kiribati (79%) fare worst with almost every adult being overweight and/or obese.

Just a few countries mainly in Central Africa and South East Asia have rates that seem somewhat healthy. Unfortunately, one of the reasons is that many people are starving in these countries.

Using the Map

You can see the data value for an individual geographic unit (e .g. country, state, county) by moving the mouse over it.

You can zoom in by clicking on a unit and zoom out by clicking on the same unit or any point on the map outside of units.

Click on the button in the top menu to see the IPython notebook with the code to retrieve and process the data.

Click on the button in the top menu to see the data table used for the maps.

Click on the button to download the currently displayed map as a PNG image.

If you see in the top menu you can choose a color scheme from the drop down displayed on click.

If there is a menu item named Choose Dataset on the left in the top menu, you can choose different data series to display on the map from that drop down.

Credits

This map is created using the d3.geomap JavaScript library.

Published August 08, 2014 • Data Source • CC BY-SA 2014 Ramiro Gómez (@yaph)

