The U.S. Is the Most Obese Nation in the World, Just Ahead of Mexico Barbara Kollmeyer - MarketWatch
go to original May 19, 2017

A growing problem (Getty Images

The obesity rate for American adults (aged 15 and over) came in at a whopping 38.2%, which puts the birthplace of the hamburger and the Cronut at the top of the heftiest-nations-in-the-world rankings, according to an updated survey from the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development.

Running at a not-too-close second is border pal Mexico, with 32.4% of population considered obese, followed by New Zealand, Hungary and Australia (the U.K. comes in at No. 6). The skinniest nations are Japan, with a tiny 3.7% of the population tipping the scales, followed by India, Korea, Indonesia and China. And across much of Europe, less than 20% of the population can be considered obese, according to the survey that was released Thursday.



In most countries, the OECD has found that women are more obese than men, though obesity rates for the male population are growing rapidly. Education is a determinant as the organization found that less schooling makes a woman two to three times more likely to be overweight than the more educated in about half of the eight countries for which the data was available.

And the OECD has found that obese people have poorer job prospects than their slimmer counterparts, earning about 10% less, and are then less productive at work, with fewer worked hours and more sick days.

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