Random Mode Keyboard shortcut: Command/Ctrl + Shift + R
thumbnail

Countries with the Highest Obesity Rate

Can you name the countries of the world where the highest % of adults have a Body Mass Index of 30 or greater?
2016 WHO estimates. Complete list here.
Countries with a population less than a million are marked in red
Quiz by Quizmaster
Rate:
Last updated: August 27, 2018
You have not attempted this quiz yet.
First submittedApril 5, 2010
Times taken147,217
Average score40.0%
Rating4.37
4:00
Enter country here:
0
 / 20 guessed
The quiz is paused. You have remaining.
Scoring
You scored / = %
This beats or equals % of test takers also scored 100%
The average score is
Your high score is
Your fastest time is
Keep scrolling down for answers and more stats ...
%
Country
61.0
Nauru
55.3
Palau
52.9
Marshall Islands
51.6
Tuvalu
48.2
Tonga
47.3
Samoa
46.0
Kiribati
45.8
F.S. Micronesia
37.9
Kuwait
36.2
United States
%
Country
35.5
Jordan
35.4
Saudi Arabia
35.1
Qatar
32.5
Libya
32.1
Turkey
32.0
Egypt
32.0
Lebanon
31.7
United Arab Emirates
31.6
Bahamas
30.8
New Zealand
+2
Level 59
May 21, 2017
I was surprised to not see Mexico on the list- I thought I heard somewhere that Mexico recently surpassed the US as one of the fattest countries.
+2
Level 90
May 22, 2017
Yea, I remember seeing that as well. From comments it was on here at some point but maybe they all sneaked over the border.
+4
Level ∞
Jan 13, 2018
Mexico is 33rd with 28.9%.
+1
Level 82
Nov 7, 2017
There are different ways to measure what constitutes being "overweight." That's my only guess. I've also seen lists with Mexico and other central American countries ranked prominently.
+3
Level 21
May 22, 2017
I guessed Ethiopia but I guess they don't have too many obese there...
+9
Level 63
May 24, 2017
Not funny.
+6
Level 89
Feb 24, 2022
It's kinda funny, if you're into dark humor.
+1
Level 26
May 23, 2017
I got Malta but missed the UK...
+2
Level 46
Sep 6, 2017
Weird how the only white majority of countries on this list are those that speak english... no European countries besides Uk and Ireland, and then the only other white countries in the world (NZ, USA, australia, canada) all make the list. very strange... I wonder what exactly the connection is there.
+6
Level 82
Nov 7, 2017
could be the greasy food that Anglo cultures seem to prefer in England especially but pretty much all over, the relative wealth and prosperity that came as a package deal with starting the Industrial Revolution, the fact that Americans invented fast food and then the concept spread more easily and readily to culturally similar Anglophone countries, or perhaps something genetic.
+2
Level 93
Dec 11, 2017
Can't believe Turkey isn't there, that always makes me fatter.
+1
Level 75
Jan 15, 2018
Odd agglomeration of Oceania and the Middle East...
+1
Level 43
Jan 31, 2018
3rd world countries and US :D
+4
Level 52
Dec 12, 2020
Bit of a stretch to call Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Kuwait, the UAE, and New Zealand third-world.
+1
Level 62
Feb 8, 2018
why is oceania fat i mean tuvalu tonga new zealand samoa nauru palau etc are on the list?
+1
Level 71
Feb 14, 2018
Plenty of food, plenty of beer, lovely beaches, no work, sunshine...... oh boy!
+5
Level 53
Mar 2, 2018
It's far more complicated than that. Obesity among Islanders has a strong genetic component.

https://news.brown.edu/articles/2016/07/samoagene

+1
Level 72
Nov 4, 2023
That’s not as funny though
+2
Level 41
Mar 3, 2024
Food Is Imported, Which leads to over processed unhealthy food
+4
Level 42
Mar 2, 2018
Common food includes fried fish, and imported products which majority of them are not very healthy
+18
Level 59
Feb 14, 2018
Consider accepting Kuweight.
+4
Level 67
Mar 2, 2018
Genuine chuckle at this.
+1
Level 71
Feb 14, 2018
I knew one country would not be there........... Finland
+2
Level 52
Nov 25, 2018
Or any other European country...
+1
Level 65
Mar 2, 2018
USA, the only western world country here.
+1
Level 46
Mar 2, 2018
How is the USA not #1 at this?
+12
Level 67
Mar 2, 2018
Perception is not reality. The US is always under a microscope, so its many flaws are often overstated. Yes, we have a lot of overweight people, ignorant people, religiously zealous people, and uneducated people....but other places have many more of those types of people than we do. It's just that those other countries don't have the same global influence, so they aren't discussed as much. USA gets so much grief because, among the major global players like Germany, France, the UK, Japan, etc., it has these problems in the largest numbers. Plus human nature is to belittle the person at the top of the totem pole. As long as the US is the biggest wielder of global influence, people will accentuate and overstate its failings.
+1
Level 63
Mar 2, 2018
You need to be washd in the blood of the Lam
+2
Level 82
Mar 22, 2018
Lamb's blood is not hygenic.
+1
Level 66
Feb 22, 2023
My dude, this quiz clearly shows that the USA has a 36% obesity rate. How on earth are people overstating America's failings???
+2
Level 70
Jun 15, 2018
USA is not #1 because there are some countries with very low populations that have a higher obesity rate. Statistically it is expected that the countries with very low populations will have lowest or highest rates of anything. The USA is a very diverse place in many ways, and I am sure there are areas with the same population as Nauru that have an even higher obesity rate than Nauru.
+3
Level 82
Apr 1, 2019
I don't think so. From what I could dig up, the fattest place in America is Wauchula, Florida, with an obesity rate of 41.8%, which edges out Kuwait but fails to reach the heights of any of the countries in Oceania on the list. It's not just that they have small populations, they're also remarkably (and pretty uniformly) fat.
+1
Level 48
Mar 2, 2018
Where the heck is Hungary!?!?!?!??!?!?!?!?!?!
+1
Level 75
Dec 4, 2018
Just South of Slovakia
+4
Level 82
Sep 16, 2019
Would make more sense for them to show up on the skinny countries quiz. Until they change their name to Stuffed.
+1
Level 89
Feb 24, 2022
They're eating Turkey.
+5
Level 49
Mar 2, 2018
That was hard. Expected UK to be there.
+2
Level 82
Mar 6, 2018
I think they're the fattest in Europe after Greece, not too far down the list but not in the top 20.
+2
Level 82
Jun 16, 2018
and they used to be on the quiz judging from the comments. Not sure what changed. Maybe they switched from "overweight" to "obese" or something else like that.
+1
Level 63
Mar 2, 2018
How could I miss Samoa?
+1
Level 30
Oct 12, 2018
So basically entire Oceania. It's just genetics.
+4
Level 79
Jul 3, 2019
It really isn't, it's more about diet and poor people buying cheap imported high-fat food products.
+1
Level 58
Nov 6, 2018
Houston, we have a problem in Nauru.
+1
Level 52
Dec 12, 2020
"Our ship didn't burn up in the atmosphere...and it's heading straight for Nauru!!!"
+3
Level 58
Nov 7, 2018
I think that maybe this shows why the BMI standard should be discredited as it really cannot be applied internationally as claimed. It is laughable to think that both Polynesian and Asian body types should be judged by it.
+1
Level 24
Jan 24, 2019
High BMI is clearly a cause in severe diseases, and kills a lot of people. If you discard it, then what would you replace it with? How would doctors check if their patience have increased risk of early death?

It's an objective measurement and the best tool we have.

The countries in Oceania with high obesity all score very low in life expectancy, with mostly only poor underdeveloped African countries below them. Their obesity is a huge problem, and cause early death. To just dismiss it as "BMI should be discredited" is VERY irresponsible of you.

There is no better tool than BMI in order to address both public and private health risks due to obesity. So if you want to discard it, please inform me of what you would replace it with!!!!!

+6
Level 82
Apr 1, 2019
While coro maybe overstated the point, he's actually right that BMI is not the best way of measuring how fat or out of shape someone is. It's an overly simplistic formula and people with wider, squatter bodies will be labeled as obese more easily using it. It also doesn't factor in how much muscle mass your body has so champion body builders would be severely obese going by BMI. Better ways of measuring include looking at hip:waist ratio, air displacement of your total body mass (can figure out how dense you are), the skinfold thickness test (pinch some fat off your body), or a DEXA scan or other more technologically advanced ways of measuring your body fat %. BMI is *a* tool but it's far from the best and it does run in to some problems applied across many different body types.

That being said, Polynesians are obese and unhealthy and this is mostly the product of poor diet and little exercise, not just different body types.

+3
Level 82
Sep 22, 2020
What am I rationalizing?

As for the diet - I have not been to many Pacific islands before outside of the Philippines (and the Filipino diet consists of a lot of rice, a lot of fried stuff, and a lot of fast food), but my friends who have worked or built residences in places like Samoa, Guam, and the Marshall Islands tell me that they eat a ton of SPAM and other fatty processed canned foods.

+1
Level 82
Sep 26, 2020
I forgot the other staple of a Filipino diet: very bland spaghetti.
+1
Level 65
Feb 24, 2022
You kidding? Bland spaghetti? Go to Jollibee, order spaghetti, and you'll get a heart attack from all the sugar. The rest is pretty accurate, but don't forget the pork and beef included.
+1
Level 82
Feb 24, 2022
I was thinking of Jollibee specifically. The spaghetti sauce they use is basically ketchup. No texture. No flavor. No herbs or spices. And then many other fast food chains have copied that. It's sub-Chef-Boyardee quality spaghetti. Just awful. But their spicy fried chicken is alright.
+1
Level 47
Jan 20, 2019
Pacific Islands ftw!
+2
Level 24
Jan 24, 2019
Somewhere, over the rainbow.
+1
Level 72
Jun 27, 2019
Didn't expect Turkey to be in this list
+1
Level 66
Feb 22, 2023
They have very nice food, a lot of which is not very healthy food
+1
Level 69
Oct 3, 2019
So pasically Oceanian nations followed by Middle East with USA and Bahamas thrown into the mix.
+2
Level 89
Oct 17, 2019
USA guessed 100% of the time. Next highest? 53% for Samoa which starts a chain of naming Pacific island nations.

I'm reminded of Top Gear where they have the non-speaking, face-shielded, character The Stig. When they came to the U.S. he walks out of his dressing trailer and his trademark white race car driver's jump suit cuts a typical fat bellied American profile.

+1
Level 51
Nov 2, 2019
Nauru’s obesity rate has decreased dramatically - used to be around 75% a few years ago. Rip the USA for it getting 100% on this.
+5
Level 65
Dec 13, 2019
Pretty scary that almost 4 out of 10 Americans is obese...very worrying.
+2
Level ∞
Dec 13, 2019
True, although the rates for many western European countries are quite high as well.
+3
Level 66
Feb 22, 2023
The highest western European country is the UK at 28%. This is very high, but the USA is at a whopping 36%.

Not sure why Quizmaster felt the need to call out "western Europe" when Australia, New Zealand, much of the middle east, Hungary, Czechia, Uruguay, Argentina, Libya are all higher than "western Europe".

+3
Level 84
Mar 16, 2020
With such a high obesity rate in Nauru, I hope the people spread out evenly so the island doesn't capsize.
+1
Level 48
Nov 10, 2023
They are preparing for the sinking of their island due to climate change. You know fat tend to float on the water.
+1
Level 71
May 30, 2020
I think that there would be many other countries on this listing if they could afford more decent food. Another list could be countries that have a high percentage of undernourished citizens.
+1
Level 63
Jul 28, 2020
I'm really surprised it's mostly the Pacific island countries.
+1
Level 49
Sep 22, 2020
Why would it be surprising? It's obviously the natural place to start guessing on this topic once you've got the US. Even if you haven't personally met any Pacific islanders, you'll have noticed when watching rugby (and American football).
+2
Level 60
Nov 13, 2020
The peoples of the Pacific tended to eat large meals throughout the day because they did everything by hand. Now that it's all industrialized, they're just doing the eating because that was the culture: big families, and big meals.
+5
Level 72
Sep 23, 2020
New Zealand?? I think of Kiwis as lean, sporty types always climbing mountains or doing stuff, not as sedentary porkers.
+1
Level 56
Nov 4, 2023
I'm surprised Australia isn't up there honestly.
+1
Level 66
Nov 8, 2023
It seems to have a population of @5m, with @0.6m on welfare. I'd be interested to see the stats for >18-25 years of age + welfare + obese, I'd assume there's a correlation there.
+2
Level 29
Sep 24, 2020
Ohhhh.... hi Africa.... I wasn’t expecting to see you here
+2
Level 60
Nov 13, 2020
If you take off the bottom two rows, the left is just Oceania, and the right is just the Middles East.
+2
Level 52
Dec 12, 2020
Kuwait is in Oceania? The Bahamas are in the Middle East?
+2
Level 51
Jan 19, 2021
GrandOldMan "Take off the last TWO BOTTOM ROWS"
+1
Level 76
Apr 13, 2023
Bottom TWO rows.
+1
Level 66
Jan 5, 2021
1/5 of all quiz takers only got the USA. I don’t know what to say about this.
+1
Level 51
Jan 19, 2021
There is a pattern n the answers, first Oceania (Ignore the U.S.) than, around the Ottoman Empire (If you do not know what the Ottoman Empire is just think of around Saudi Arabia)and than, the last two are both just completely random although they are technically both island countries.

Poor Oceania, the first 8 countries are all Oceania, and there is a random Oceanian country hanging around the bottom

If you take off the BOTTOM TWO ROWS you will just get the Oceanian countries on the left and on the right countries around Ottoman Empire (Countries around Saudi Arabia basically is the Ottoman Empire *Just a reminder) / the Middle East countries

+5
Level 55
Feb 10, 2021
Lmao the fact that 99% of people got USA, and next is 55%
+2
Level 61
Apr 2, 2021
what about Brunei
+2
Level 67
Jun 4, 2021
Interesting
+2
Level 76
Aug 19, 2021
Suprised to see any African countries on here at all
+2
Level 36
Sep 16, 2021
I only got usa...
+1
Level 44
Nov 1, 2021
Oceania countries and Middle Eastern countries are dominating the list. Oh! and also the country people talk about the most as obese, USA and also The Bahamas meaning two of the richest countries surrounding the Caribbean Sea. Knew most Arabian countries are fat because of so much money except Syria, Iraq and Yemen. But how can countries that are poor (Oceanic countries) are so fat? Answer is they were once very rich like Nauru since it sold phosphate from phosphate mineral deposits on the island but when they got lower and lower, they became poor people from nobles. Anyways quiz is very good.
+4
Level 82
Feb 24, 2022
It has more to do with diet and lifestyle than wealth these days. You don't really need to be wealthy to be obese anymore. Low-quality, high-calorie processed food is often the cheapest stuff available, depending on where you live.
+1
Level 44
Jun 22, 2022
nothing to do with wealth, more to do with cultural lifestyle and diet
+1
Level 71
Feb 24, 2022
Why are Polynesians disproportionately affected by obesity?
+2
Level 86
Feb 24, 2022
Why is this quiz featured today if it's not Fat Tuesday?
+1
Level 59
Feb 24, 2022
Because there is always at least one person in the world that is fat everyday. We must give appreciation! lol
+1
Level 77
Feb 24, 2022
Today is Fat Thursday and not Fat Tuesday - that comes on Tuesday.
+2
Level 75
Feb 24, 2022
Quiz is a good one, but 5 days early...
+1
Level 26
Feb 25, 2022
I'm suprised that USA not 1st, btw I got 20/20
+1
Level 53
Mar 22, 2022
So basically all Oceanian countries, all Middle Eastern countries and New Zealand, Bahamas and the U.S.A!
+2
Level 46
Apr 24, 2022
Wow, so few European countries
+1
Level 75
Nov 4, 2023
0 is very few indeed.
+1
Level 16
Jun 29, 2022
I thought Canada, Solomon Islands and Caribbean countries were
+1
Level 30
Sep 14, 2022
The islanders aren't fat. Most of it is muscle. You would know that if you have ever watched a rugby game.
+2
Level 45
Apr 13, 2023
i love how everyone just guessed usa
+1
Level 81
Nov 4, 2023
So much for the acclaimed benefits of the delicious Mediterranean diet, with 9 of the countries either on the Mediterranean or sharing most of its beneficial characteristics (ie olive oil, fruits, vegetables, beans and other legumes, nuts, herbs, and spices, proportionally less meat than stereotypical American/Canadian and northern European diets). I've recently been making a lot of Mediterranean inspired food, and questioned its "healthfulness" as I kept pouring more and more oil in.
+1
Level 65
Nov 4, 2023
Mediterranean diet mostly refers to the European side of the Mediterranean Sea. (Italian, Spanish, Greek). When you go east, it becomes Middle Eastern diet, and then across the sea it will be considered North-African. I have never heard someone refer to Moroccan or Algerian food as 'mediterranean'.
+1
Level 75
Nov 4, 2023
#1 guessed: USA with 99%

#2 guessed: Samoa with 54%

Ouch.

When I was in the USA recently I did indeed see a lot of overweight people, but then I also noticed a lot of super-fit people. Where I live in South America not many people are on either extreme to be honest, but on average maybe the health of the overall population is somewhere about the same.

+1
Level 72
Nov 4, 2023
Big up to the USA to be the only non-arabic / non-insular country in the list. A little self-reflexion wouldn't hurt...
+1
Level 56
Nov 4, 2023
Higher wealth relative to education level?
+1
Level 48
Nov 10, 2023
What (positive) happened to Vanuatu, that it makes exception to all of its neighbors (except Fiji, which is somewhat understandable)? I actually thought, I made a typo, when it was not accepted.