KEY TAKEAWAYS
Nine states had adult obesity rates at or above 35% in 2018, up from seven states at that level in 2017, an historic level of obesity.
Mississippi and West Virginia have the highest level of adult obesity in the nation at 39.5%, while Colorado has the lowest rate at 23%.
In 2012, no state had an adult obesity rate over 35%. From 2013 through 2018, 33 states had statistically significant increases in adult obesity.
Americans have never been fatter.
That’s according to a new report from the Trust For America’s Health, which found that one-in-three Americans of all ages–about 100 million people–are obese, a historic high.
Using the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System and its own in-house analysis, TFAH issues a biannual snapshot of obesity rates nationwide.
“These latest data shout that our national obesity crisis is getting worse,” TFAH CEO and President John Auerbach said in comments accompanying the study.
