Also in this Section:

• What is Obesity
• The mechanistic cause - calories in, calories out
• The wider causes and risk factors
• The health consequences
• Prevention
• Treatment
• Monitoring
• Quick facts
• Overweight and Obesity in European Children
• Obesity in European Adults

Quick Links:

• Contact EASO
• EASO Members
• EASO Meetings

Quick facts

• The World Health Organization estimates that in 2005 (the latest year available) approximately 1.6 billion adults were overweight, of which at least 400 million were obese.
• Once considered only a problem in high-income countries, overweight and obesity are on the rise in developing countries. WHO projects that by 2015, the ranks of the overweight will grow to about 2.3 billion adults and that more than 700 million of them will be obese.
• Globally, at least 20 million infants under the age of 5 were overweight in 2005, and IASO estimates that about 10% of the world’s school-age children are overweight or obese, some 120 million children.
• In the 53 countries of the WHO European Region, experts estimate that 150 million adults and 15 million children will be obese by 2010.
• In the European Union 27 member states, approximately 60% of adults and 20% of school-age children are overweight or obese.