Fattest Country in the World

A recent World Health Organization (WHO) report revealed that more than a billion people across the world are overweight, and approximately 300 million of these are clinically obese. These statistics highlight the fact that obesity has reached epidemic proportions over the last few years. While obesity rates across the world vary significantly, they seem to be quite high in certain countries. It may come as a surprise for many, but a look at the list of world's fattest countries reveals that at least 10 countries of the world have more than 60 percent of its population overweight.

Obesity: Definition

Obesity is a health condition - typically characterized by accumulation of excess body fat in the body to an extent wherein it interferes with certain body functions, causes various health problems associated with these body functions and reduces the person's life expectancy. Body mass index (BMI), the tool used for determining whether a person is obese by taking his height and body weight into consideration, defines a person as obese when his BMI exceeds 30 kg/m². Similarly, if the person's BMI is between 25 kg/m² and 30 kg/m² he is considered to be overweight - a condition which precedes obesity. The obesity rate is considered to be an indicator of the country's nutritional trends and health care scenario, which makes it extremely important when determining the progress of the said country in the field of health care.

Fattest Country in the World

According to the World Health Organization (WHO) statistics, the distinction of being world's fattest country goes to the American Samoa islands in the Pacific Ocean. Around 93.5 percent of the people inhabiting this island are overweight in nature. While the problems such as obesity and overweight seem to be quite common when it comes various islands in the Pacific belt, it seems to have reached epidemic proportion in American Samoa. Experts are of the opinion that the introduction of fast food in the American Samoan diet is the underlying cause of obesity in this region. That being said, you may come across sources which give a list with American Samoa featuring nowhere on it. This can be attributed to the fact that it is an unincorporated territory of the United States. If that criteria is taken into consideration, the island nation of Kiribati (again in the Pacific Ocean) becomes the fattest country in the world with 81.5 percent of its population being overweight.

Countries With High Obesity Rates

While the American Samoa tops the list, several other countries seem to be closing in on the top spot, and the rising obesity rates for these countries validates this fact. Given below is a list of these countries as per the statistical data compiled by the World Health Organization (WHO).

Rank	Country	Obese Population (%)
1	American Samoa	93.5
2	Kiribati	81.5
3	USA*	66.7
4	Germany	66.5
5	Egypt	66.0
6	Bosnia-Herzegovina	62.9
7	New Zealand	62.7
8	Israel	61.9
9	Croatia	61.4
10	United Kingdom	61.0

*Obesity in the United States: The fact that United States features at the 3rd position in this list of highlights the growing problem of obesity in America. Some of the fattest cities in America are Corpus Christi (Texas), Charleston (West Virginia) and El Paso (Texas) etc.

Obese people are more vulnerable to several diseases and disorders, with type 2 diabetes, heart problem, osteoarthritis, etc. topping the list. According to the WHO estimates, almost all the countries mentioned above spend anywhere between 2-6 percent of their total health care expenditure on health problems caused by obesity. While this is just the estimated expenditure, the actual expenditure is considered to be a lot more hefty than this.