20% of the World Will Be Obese by 2025, Study Suggests

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Data from a new study suggests that 1 in 5 people (18% of men and 21% of women) will be obese by the year 2025, CNN reports.

The study, published in the Lancet, compared body mass index trends from over 200 countries between 1975 and 2015, and concluded that “[in] four decades, global obesity has more than tripled among men and doubled among women.”

Other key findings of the study were:

• More men were obese than underweight in 136 countries and more women were obese than underweight in 165 of them.
• In 1975, 2.6% of the world’s population was obese; in 2014, that number jumped to 8.9%.
• By 2025, the study estimates that 43% of women and 45% of men in the U.S. will be obese.

“We have transitioned from a world in which underweight prevalence was more than double that of obesity, to one in which more people are obese than underweight,” Professor Majid Ezzati, lead author of the study said.

The study also predicts that the U.S. has zero chance of halting the obesity epidemic by 2025.