CDC Releases Latest Obesity Statistics

September 17, 2018

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) released new data from the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System regarding self-reported adult obesity prevalence for all 50 states, the District of Columbia, Guam and Puerto Rico.  The data reveal in 2017, seven states – Alabama, Arkansas, Iowa, Louisiana, Mississippi, Oklahoma and West Virginia – reported an adult obesity prevalence at or above 35 percent.  This represents a slight increase from five states in 2016, and a marked uptick from five years ago, when no state had an obesity prevalence above 35 percent.  Obesity prevalence ranged from a low of 22.6 percent in Colorado to a high of 38.1 percent in West Virginia, the CDC found.