50% of world’s population will be fatty and unhealthy by 2035, says study.
Obesity has long been thought to be a problem of the developed world, with wealthy countries eating themselves sick with an abundance of ultraprocessed foods and poorer countries suffering from food insecurity. But that is no longer the case.
According to a March report from the World Obesity Atlas (WOA), by 2035, more than half of the global population—51%, or more than 4 billion people—will be obese, and the condition will affect all regions and continents. The total cost of treating obesity-related illnesses is expected to be $4 trillion per year, which is roughly how much the COVID-19 pandemic cost the world in health-care costs in 2020.
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The new projection represents a significant increase over the current 2023 figures. Obesity currently affects approximately 3.12 billion people (39% of the global population). However, the global obesity rate was 23.9% in 2008, affecting 1.63 billion people.
