Obesity Statistics

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County-Specific Diabetes and Obesity Prevalence, 2007

Wide sections of the Southeast, Appalachia, and some tribal lands in the West and Northern Plains have the nation's highest rates of obesity and diabetes. In many counties in those regions, rates of diagnosed diabetes exceed 10 percent and obesity prevalence is more than 30 percent.

Eighty-one percent of counties in the Appalachian region that includes Kentucky, Tennessee, and West Virginia have high rates of diabetes and obesity. So do three-quarters of counties in the southern region that includes Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, and South Carolina.

The estimates, in this week’s Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, are the first to provide county-level snapshots of obesity across the United States. They also update diabetes county-level estimates released in 2008.

Obesity

Obesity by Race/Ethnicity 2006-2008
New Obesity Data Shows Blacks Have the Highest Rates of Obesity

Blacks had 51 percent higher prevalence of obesity, and Hispanics had 21 percent higher obesity prevalence compared with whites.

Greater prevalences of obesity for blacks and whites were found in the South and Midwest than in the West and Northeast. Hispanics in the Northeast had lower obesity prevalence than Hispanics in the Midwest, South or West.

For this study analysis, CDC analyzed the 2006−2008 BRFSS data.

Obesity Prevalence Among Low-Income, Preschool-Aged Children 1998–2008

One of 7 low-income, preschool-aged children is obese, but the obesity epidemic may be stabilizing. The prevalence of obesity in low-income two to four year-olds increased from 12.4 percent in 1998 to 14.5 percent in 2003 but rose to only 14.6 percent in 2008.

American Indians and Alaska Natives are the only race or ethnic groups with increasing rates between 2003 and 2008. Obesity prevalence among these children continued to rise about a half percentage point each year from 2003 to 2008.

In 2008, obesity prevalence was highest among American Indian or Alaska Native (21.2 percent) and Hispanic (18.5 percent) children, and lowest among white (12.6 percent), Asian or Pacific Islander (12.3 percent), and black (11.8 percent) children.

In 2008, only Colorado and Hawaii reported 10 percent or less of low-income preschool-age children were obese. The only group with rates over 20 percent were Indian Tribal Organizations.

For this study analysis, CDC analyzed the 1998−2008 Pediatric Nutrition Surveillance System (PedNSS) data. The study defined obesity as a body mass index-for-age at or above the 95th percentile based on the 2000 sex-specific growth charts.