Obesity statistics around the world.

Obesity: in statistics

People are getting fatter almost everywhere in the world.The World Health Organization predicts there will be 2.3 billion overweight adults in the world by 2015 and more than 700 million of them will be obese. Figures for 2005 show 1.6 billion adults were overweight and 400 million were obese. Obesity is a modern problem - statistics for it did not even exist 50 years ago. The increase of convenience foods, labour-saving devices, motorised transport and more sedentary jobs means people are getting fatter. The body mass index (BMI) is the most commonly-used way of classifying overweight and obesity in adult populations and individuals. BMI is defined as a person's weight in kilograms divided by the square of their height in meters (kg/m2). Each BMI figure is classified within a range, eg 18-25 is ideal and over 30 is reckoned to be obese. According to a survey of bodyshapes conducted in the UK in 1951, a woman's average waist size was 70cm (27.5in). A 3-D survey carried out by SizeUK in 2004 found the average woman had a waist measurement of 86cm (34in) and a BMI of 24.4, just inside the ideal range. There was no comparative data for men in 1951, but the SizeUK survey showed the average man in 2004 had a waist of 94cm (37in) and a BMI of 25.2, technically just outside the ideal range .

Article is from http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/7151813.stm