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From 2017 to March 2020, the prevalence of obesity among U.S. children and adolescents was 19.7% 1. This means that approximately 14.7 million U.S. youths aged 2–19 years have obesity. For children, obesity is defined as having a at or above the 95th percentile for age and sex.
Childhood obesity is a serious medical condition that affects children and adolescents. It's particularly troubling because the extra pounds often start children on the path to health problems that were once considered adult problems — diabetes, high blood pressure and high cholesterol.
What is childhood obesity? Childhood obesity is a complex chronic (long-term) condition that happens when your child is above a healthy weight for their age, height and sex assigned at birth. The medical definition of childhood obesity is having a body mass index (BMI) at or above the 95th percentile for age and sex in children aged 2 years and ...
In the past 3 decades, the prevalence of childhood obesity has more than doubled in children and tripled in adolescents. 1 The latest data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey show that the prevalence of obesity among US children and adolescents was 18.5% in 2015-2016.
In 2022, 43% of adults aged 18 years and over were overweight and 16% were living with obesity. In 2022, 37 million children under the age of 5 were overweight. Over 390 million children and adolescents aged 5–19 years were overweight in 2022, including 160 million who were living with obesity.
Most US children spend an average of 6 to 7 hours a day at school, which is a large part of their waking hours. Thus, schools are a priority setting for preventing childhood obesity, a health condition that affects nearly 1 in 5 young people of school age (6 to 19 years) in the United States.
On this page: Defining Overweight and Obesity. Prevalence of Overweight and Obesity. Trends in Obesity among Adults and Youth in the United States. Defining Overweight and Obesity. A person whose weight is higher than what is considered to be a normal weight for a given height is described as being overweight or having obesity. 1. Fast Facts.