How Many Americans Are Obese or Overweight? [Updated April 2025]

Research highlights:

How many Americans are overweight or obese?

• In 2025, an estimated 232 million people in the U.S. are living with overweight or obesity.

What percentage of Americans is overweight or obese?

• In 2025, 68.1% of Americans are living with overweight or obesity—over two-thirds of the population.

Here is how the prevalence of overweight and obesity has changed over time in the U.S. since 1990:

The chart reveals a powerful yet nuanced trend: while the total percentage of Americans living with overweight or obesity continues to rise. This growth is now driven almost entirely by obesity. Overweight prevalence is steadily declining, but this is actually a warning sign: it means that more and more overweight Americans are becoming obese.

This shift points to a deepening severity of the crisis. In other words, we see the progression toward more severe weight-related conditions. Without policy reform and systemic change, the weight burden is set to grow heavier: literally, mentally, and economically.

How many American adults are overweight or obese?

• In 2025, about 177.7 million American adults are living with overweight or obesity.

What percentage of American adults is overweight or obese?

• In 2025, 75.6% of American adults are overweight or obese. This is roughly 3 out of 4 American adults having problems with obesity or being overweight.

How many American children are overweight or obese?

• In 2025, around 25.5 million American children are living with overweight or obesity.

What percentage of American children is overweight or obese?

• In 2025, 41.1% of American children are overweight or obese.

These figures reveal a striking generational contrast: while the prevalence of overweight and obesity among adults is nearly double that of children (75.6% vs. 41.1%), the burden among children is still alarmingly high—already affecting 2 in 5. This suggests that the adult obesity crisis didn’t emerge suddenly but is rooted in long-term, early-life trends that are compounding over time.

Think about it: the current adult rate reflects a long-term outcome of childhood patterns from past decades. If the twice lower childhood rate resulted in 75.6% adult Americans being overweight or obese, what will happen in next 20 years as the childhood rate doubles?

How many obese people are there in the U.S.?

First of all, let’s analyze the historical data along with the growth projection of obesity in the United States:

This chart includes all age groups: adults, adolescents, and children.

As we can see, U.S. obesity rates are expected to surge by 160% during 1990-2050: the percentage of obese Americans is expected to grow from 18.4% to 48.6%.

What is the percentage of obese Americans?

• In 2025, an estimated 38.2% of Americans are living with obesity.

Using the general prevalence of obesity among all age groups in the United States, we can answer the next intriguing question:

How many obese people are there in America?

• In 2025, around 130 million Americans are living with obesity—more than one in three people nationwide

Now, let’s analyze the obesity trends for separate age groups: adults, adolescents, and kids to see how they compare and get more insights.

What is the percent of obese adults in America?

Let’s analyze the historical data and growth projection of the obesity rate among adults in the U.S.

• The percentage of adult Americans has doubled since 1990, and it is projected to grow by another 25% by 2050

What percent of American adults are obese?

• In 2025, an estimated 45.8% of American adults are living with obesity—nearly half the adult population.

However, the absolute number shows the scale of the obesity epidemic even more vividly.

How many American adults are obese?

• In 2025, about 107 million American adults are living with obesity.

The picture is eye-opening—yet a deeper look reveals important differences between men and women in how obesity affects the U.S. adult population.

Male vs female obesity rates in America

Let’s analyze the historical trends and future projections for obesity prevalence among adult males and females in the United States:

American females historically had 5% higher obesity prevalence compared to males, and this trend is expected to continue in the future.

Percentage of obese women in America

• In 2025, 47.8% of adult women in America are living with obesity, according to estimates.

Percentage of obese men in America

• In 2025, an estimated 43.8% of adult males in America are living with obesity.

The persistent gap in obesity prevalence between American women and men hovering around 4 to 5 percentage points, suggests a deeper structural and behavioral dynamic. Women may face disproportionate barriers to physical activity: caregiving responsibilities, safety concerns in public spaces, or limited access to time and resources for exercise. On top of that, they often face cultural pressures, hormonal factors, and socioeconomic disparities.

For this reason, we developed a weightlifting program specifically for women. We encourage and respect female participation in sports and are committed to creating a supportive, safe environment where women can build strength and confidence through movement.

Now, let us try to better understand the future of obesity in America by looking at childhood obesity rates.

What percentage of American children are obese?

Let’s look at how the prevalence of obesity has changed in the United States since 1990 and what can be expected in the future:

As we see, childhood obesity in the U.S. is rising steadily across both boys and girls aged 5–14, with prevalence expected to surpass 25% by 2050. In the 1990s, girls had lower obesity rates than boys, but this pattern has reversed, and the gap has continued to widen over time.

Percentage of child obesity in America

• In 2025, 18.8% of American children are living with obesity – almost 1 in 5 children in the U.S. is obese.

How many American children are obese?

• In 2025, about 11.7 million American children are living with obesity. ​​

Childhood obesity rates in America by gender

• In 2025, 19.3% of American girls aged 5–14 are living with obesity.
• In 2025, 18.3% of American boys aged 5–14 are living with obesity.

Obesity in America by age group

• In 2025, American adults have the highest obesity rate of all age groups, at 45.8%.
• Adolescents follow with an obesity prevalence of 25% in 2025—significantly higher than in children.
• Among children, 18.8% are living with obesity in 2025, marking the lowest rate but still a major concern.

What is the percentage of overweight Americans?

• The percentage of overweight people in the U.S. is 27.6% in 2025

What is the number of overweight Americans?

• In 2025, about 94 million Americans are living with being overweight.

What percentage of American adults are overweight?

• In 2025, the percentage of overweight adults in the U.S. is 29.8%—nearly one in three.

Let’s analyze the male vs female overweight in America:

What is the percentage of American men that are overweight?

• In 2025, 32.7% of American men are living with overweight.

How many American men are overweight?

• In 2025, about 54.7 million American men are living with being overweight.

What is the percentage of American women that are overweight?

• In 2025, 27.1% of American women are living with overweight.

How many American women are overweight?

• In 2025, an estimated 47.1 million American women are living with overweight.

What percentage of American children are overweight?

• In 2025, 22.2% of American children are living with overweight – more than 1 in 5 children.

How many American children are overweight

• In 2025, about 13.8 million American children are living with overweight. ​​

This data reveals a layered portrait of how excess weight is distributed across the U.S. population—and it challenges surface-level assumptions. We see that nearly 94 million Americans live with being overweight – a less-discussed issue compared to obesity. Adults—especially men—bear a higher overweight burden, with 1 in 3 men affected. Men dominate in the overweight category, while women dominate in obesity. This is a warning sign for American women that transition to the obese category faster.

Among children, 22.2% are overweight, but when combined with obesity, the rate jumps to 41.1%, meaning nearly half of U.S. children carry excess weight. This shows that the American system fails to prevent obesity and overweight among young people – future adult citizens.

Being overweight is not a pause before obesity—it is a critical stage where intervention is still highly effective, yet it receives far less attention than obesity. These numbers call for a public shift in focus: to treat overweight not as a mild concern but as the most scalable point of prevention. In a society where over a quarter of all people are overweight, early education, supportive environments, and proactive culture-building are not luxuries—they’re necessities.

Methodology

*Using the projections and historical trends presented in the Lancet article titled “Global and regional forecasts of obesity and overweight prevalence in adults and children, 2020–2050”, we interpolated data points between published years (1990, 2000, 2010, 2021, 2030, 2040, 2050). This allowed us to estimate the prevalence of overweight and obesity for 2025 by applying linear interpolation to the sex-specific trends for both adults and children in the U.S.

Sources:

1. National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases. (n.d.). Overweight & obesity statistics. Retrieved April 18, 2025, from https://www.niddk.nih.gov/health-information/health-statistics/overweight-obesity
2. The Lancet. (2024). Global burden of obesity 2024: Trends, projections, and policy implications. Retrieved from https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(24)01548-4/fulltext