WEDNESDAY, Feb. 4, 2026 (HealthDay News) -- The prevalence of obesity is high in the United States and is expected to continue increasing to 46.9 percent of the adult population by 2035, according to a study published online Jan. 28 in the Journal of the American Medical Association.
Nicole K. DeCleene, from the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation, University of Washington in Seattle, and colleagues estimated the prevalence of obesity in the United States from 1990 to 2022 and predicted trends through 2035.
The researchers found an estimated 107 million adults were living with obesity in the United States in 2022 (42.5 percent of the adult population), an increase from 34.7 million in 1990 (19.3 percent of the adult population). This number is projected to increase to 126 million by 2035 (46.9 percent of the adult population). In 2022, age-standardized prevalence by race and ethnicity group and sex varied from 40.1 to 56.9 percent for non-Hispanic White men and non-Hispanic Black women, respectively. Substantial state-level differences were seen, with the highest prevalence in Midwestern and Southern states; within-state disparities were seen by race and ethnicity, which were larger for women than for men. There was also variation by age, with the highest prevalence among middle-aged adults and large increases in the youngest adults, especially among women.
"At the end of the day, we know what it takes to be healthy. I think that we don't put enough effort into it. We don't encourage it enough. We don't incentivize the population to live healthier," Armando Castro-Tie, M.D., from Northwell South Shore University Hospital in Bay Shore, New York, said in a statement.