More than a billion people worldwide are obese, research finds

In total, 880 million adults and 159 million children were living with obesity in 2022. Photograph: Tero Vesalainen/Alamy

More than 1 billion people worldwide are now living with obesity, with rates among children increasing fourfold across a 32-year period, according to new research.

Analysis of the weight and height measurements of over 220 million people from more than 190 countries shows how body mass index (BMI) changed across the world between 1990 and 2022.