Study: By 2050, over 50% of the adult population will be overweight or obese

It is predicted that by 2050, more than 50% of the adult population will be overweight or obese. The same problem will affect a third of all children, adolescents and young people. China, the USA and India will be the leaders.

This is according to a scientific study that covered more than 200 countries and was published in the journal The Lancet.

From 1990 to 2021, obesity rates among children and young adolescents increased from 8.8% to 18.1%, and among young adults (under 25 years of age) from 9.9% to 20.3%, more than doubling.

By 2021, nearly half of the worldʼs adult population—one billion men and 1.11 billion women aged 25 and over—were overweight or obese.

If this trend continues and the number of overweight or obese people increases at the same rate, the global prevalence of overweight and obese adults is expected to increase to 57.4% for men and 60.3% for women by 2050. In 2050, China (627 million), India (450 million) and the United States (214 million) will be the countries with the largest number of overweight or obese people.

This problem will also be particularly acute in low-income countries. By then, the population of sub-Saharan Africa will have grown significantly (by more than 250%) to 522 million, which will be reflected in obesity statistics. This is especially true in Nigeria, where the number of overweight people will increase from 36.6 million in 2021 to 141 million in 2050, making it the fourth most obese country in the world.

Researchers also found that the problem of obesity will also be particularly prevalent among adolescent girls in regions such as North America, Australia, Oceania, North Africa, the Middle East and Latin America.

Experts say that if governments take urgent action now, they will still have time to prevent such problems.

The study was led by Professor Emmanuela Gakidou from the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation at the University of Washington in the US. She says governments can use the data to identify priority populations for prevention.

Another study author says that if we start acting now, we have the opportunity to avoid global obesity among children and adolescents. The scientist notes that this is also important to avoid the transmission of obesity from generation to generation and prevent a wave of serious diseases and terrible financial and social costs for future generations.

The authors acknowledged that the study did not take into account the impact that new weight loss drugs could have, but they believe they could play a significant role in the future.

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