List of countries by Body Mass Index (BMI)

This page serves as a partial list of countries by adult mean body weight and incidence of obese and overweight populations as calculated by body mass index.

The data for 2014 was first published by the World Health Organisation in 2015.

Methodology

Mean Body Mass Index (BMI) provides a simplified measure of the comparative weight of populations on a country by country basis. BMI calculates a person's mass (weight) divided by the square of their height. An individual with a BMI of 25 kg/m² or more is considered overweight. An individual with a BMI of 30 kg/m² or more is considered obese.

The data highlighted on this page comes from World Health Organisation statistics for adult (18 years old and older) populations. Mean BMI data is shown separately for males and females, as well as a combined figure. Mean data highlights the central tendency of the population data and is but one method of calculating relative body weight between populations.

Limitations on the usefulness of comparative BMI data

There are significant limitations to the usefulness of comparative BMI data cited by both the medical community and statisticians.^[1] BMI data has significant weaknesses in terms of scalability and in accounting for variations in physical characteristics.

WHO Data on Mean BMI (2014)

Data published in 2015.^[2]

Country	Overall rank	Overall mean BMI (kg/m^2)	Female rank	Female mean BMI (kg/m^2)	Male rank	Male mean BMI (kg/m^2)
Nauru	1	32.5	4	32.8	1	32.1
Cook Islands	2	32.3	5	32.6	1	32.1
Niue	2	32.3	3	33.1	3	31.4
Tonga	4	31.9	1	33.5	4	30.4
Samoa	5	31.7	1	33.5	5	29.9
Kuwait	6	30.0	8	30.8	6	29.5
Saint Kitts and Nevis	7	29.7	7	30.9	14	28.4
Kiribati	8	29.6	10	30.5	11	28.7
Saint Lucia	8	29.6	11	30.2	9	28.9
Micronesia	10	29.4	6	31.0	24	27.8
Palau	10	29.4	21	29.5	7	29.4
Tuvalu	12	29.3	16	29.9	11	28.7
Egypt	13	29.2	9	30.7	28	27.6
Marshall Islands	13	29.2	14	30.0	14	28.4
Qatar	13	29.2	13	30.1	8	29.0
United Arab Emirates	16	29.0	17	29.7	13	28.6
Belize	17	28.9	11	30.2	34	27.5
Jordan	17	28.9	17	29.7	17	28.2
Bahamas	19	28.8	19	29.6	18	28.0
United States of America	19	28.8	29	28.8	10	28.8
Barbados	21	28.7	14	30.0	40	27.4
Trinidad and Tobago	21	28.7	23	29.4	22	27.9
Saudi Arabia	23	28.5	31	28.7	16	28.3
Antigua and Barbuda	24	28.4	21	29.5	46	27.3
Libya	24	28.4	19	29.6	48	27.2

WHO Data on Prevalence of Obesity (BMI ≥ 30kg/m²) (2014)

Data published in 2015.^[3]

Country	Overall rank	Overall prevalence of obesity (%)	Female rank	Female prevalence of obesity (%)	Male rank	Male prevalence of obesity (%)
Cook Islands	1	50.8	1	55.1	1	46.6
Palau	2	47.6	2	52.2	2	43.1
Nauru	3	45.6	3	51.6	4	39.7
Samoa	4	43.4	4	51.3	8	36.0
Tonga	5	43.3	5	50.1	7	36.4
Niue	6	43.2	7	49.0	5	37.7
Marshall Islands	7	42.8	8	48.9	6	36.9
Qatar	8	42.3	6	49.7	3	40.0
Kiribati	9	40.6	9	48.5	12	32.9
Tuvalu	10	40.3	10	46.4	10	34.5
Kuwait	11	39.7	11	45.9	9	35.5
Micronesia	12	37.2	13	43.7	14	31.0
United Arab Emirates	12	37.2	12	45.1	11	33.8
Fiji	14	36.4	16	42.3	15	30.8
Bahamas	15	36.2	15	42.5	18	29.7
Vanuatu	16	35.4	17	41.5	19	29.4
Bahrain	17	35.1	14	42.8	16	30.5
Saudi Arabia	18	34.7	18	41.4	17	29.9
United States of America	19	33.7	32	34.7	13	32.6
Libya	20	33.1	19	39.5	26	26.6
Lebanon	21	31.9	24	37.7	28	26.3
Barbados	22	31.3	22	38.2	35	24.4
Trinidad and Tobago	23	31.1	23	38.0	37	24.1
Antigua and Barbuda	24	30.9	20	38.7	46	22.8
Oman	24	30.9	24	37.7	23	27.2
Jordan	26	30.5	21	38.6	49	22.7
Andorra	27	29.5	51	30.5	20	28.5
Turkey	27	29.5	29	35.8	45	22.9
New Zealand	29	29.2	48	30.8	22	27.7
Egypt	30	28.9	26	37.5	73	20.3
Australia	31	28.6	60	28.8	21	28.4
Mexico	32	28.1	38	33.1	46	22.8
United Kingdom	32	28.1	57	29.2	24	26.9
Canada	34	28.0	58	29.1	25	26.8
France	65	23.9	87	24.0	39	23.8
Italy	88	21.0	106	21.6	72	20.4
Sweden	92	20.5	121	18.6	51	22.5
Germany	94	20.1	122	18.5	58	21.9
Brazil	98	20.0	98	22.7	94	17.3
Japan	184	3.3	190	3.2	159	3.4

WHO Data on Prevalence of Overweight (BMI ≥ 25kg/m²) (2014)

Data published in 2015.^[4]

Country	Overall rank	Overall prevalence of overweight (%)	Female rank	Female prevalence of overweight (%)	Male rank	Male prevalence of overweight (%)
Cook Islands	1	81.0	1	82.7	1	79.4
Palau	2	79.3	2	81.0	3	77.6
Qatar	3	78.1	8	78.9	2	77.8
Nauru	4	77.8	3	80.2	4	75.5
Marshall Islands	5	75.8	6	78.9	7	72.7
Kuwait	6	75.4	11	75.8	5	75.2
Niue	7	74.9	9	78.4	10	71.4
Tonga	8	74.8	5	79.6	12	69.9
Samoa	9	74.3	4	80.0	16	69.1
United Arab Emirates	10	74.0	11	75.8	6	73.1
Tuvalu	11	73.2	10	76.8	14	69.6
Kiribati	12	73.1	6	78.9	25	67.4
Bahrain	13	71.7	15	74.0	11	70.2
Fiji	14	78.2	13	74.7	23	67.8
Saudi Arabia	15	69.6	17	71.9	22	68.0
Bahamas	16	69.0	18	71.5	30	66.3
Micronesia	17	68.9	14	74.5	47	63.7
Lebanon	18	68.7	20	70.1	25	67.4
Libya	18	68.7	19	70.9	29	66.5
Vanuatu	20	67.9	16	73.4	56	62.6
Oman	21	67.4	22	69.8	33	66.1
United States of America	22	67.3	46	62.6	8	72.1
Andorra	23	66.9	52	61.9	9	72.0
Turkey	24	66.3	23	68.5	44	64.1
Jordan	25	65.9	21	70.0	60	62.0
Canada	26	64.4	57	59.8	17	69.0
Mexico	26	64.4	32	65.6	52	63.1
Australia	28	64.0	68	58.1	12	69.9
New Zealand	28	64.0	59	59.7	18	68.5
Malta	28	64.0	61	59.6	18	68.5
United Kingdom	32	63.4	65	58.8	21	68.1
Spain	47	60.9	81	55.7	31	66.2
France	48	60.7	89	54.7	27	67.1
Italy	63	63.4	94	53.7	43	64.3
Sweden	88	55.9	115	48.8	52	63.1
Germany	99	54.8	124	47.2	54	62.7
Brazil	103	63.4	98	52.8	83	55.6
Japan	167	24.2	190	19.7	134	29.0

References

1. Olson, Samantha (9 February 2016). "BMI Is No Longer A Good Indication Of Healthy Weight; Here Are 6 Better Ways To Measure Your Health". Medical Daily.
2. "Health Topics, Obesity". World Health Organisation. Retrieved 25 February 2016.
3. "Health Topics, Obesity". World Health Organisation. Retrieved 25 February 2016.
4. "Health Topics, Obesity". World Health Organisation. Retrieved 25 February 2016.