Overview

• UNICEF’s analysis of more than 190 countries finds about 188 million school-age children are obese and 391 million are overweight.
• Global obesity among 5- to 19-year-olds more than tripled from 2000 to 2022, rising from 3% to 9.4%, while underweight in this age group fell to 9.2%.
• Obesity exceeds underweight in every region except sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia, underscoring a growing double burden of malnutrition.
• Rates are highest in some Pacific island nations, including Niue (38%), the Cook Islands (37%) and Nauru (33%), with high-income examples such as Chile (27%) and the United States and United Arab Emirates (21%).
• UNICEF urges governments to restrict junk-food marketing and remove unhealthy products from schools, noting Mexico’s recent ban on many ultra-processed foods in public schools.