Overview

• UNICEF reports that 20% of 5–19 year olds are overweight and 9.4% are obese versus 9.2% underweight, equating to 391 million overweight and 188 million obese youths based on 2022 data from about 190 countries.
• Obesity now exceeds underweight in most regions except Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia, with the highest youth obesity rates in Pacific islands such as Niue (38%), Cook Islands (37%) and Nauru (33%).
• High-income countries also show elevated levels, including Chile at 27% and both the United States and United Arab Emirates at 21% among 5–19 year olds.
• The report links rising obesity to cheap, highly processed foods and aggressive—often digital—marketing that displaces fruits, vegetables and proteins in children’s diets.
• UNICEF warns of long-term health and social harms and calls for measures such as sugary-drink and junk-food taxes, clearer labels, advertising limits, industry reformulation and school food rules, citing Mexico’s school ban as a model and stressing this is a societal failure rather than a lack of exercise.