South-East Asia · Country profile
Obesity in Bhutan
13.1% of adults live with obesity (2024). That ranks 154th highest of 199 countries.
13.1%
of adults live with obesity (2024)
Likely range 10.7%–15.6%
Source: WHO
76 thousand
adults with obesity (estimated number)
WHO rate × UN population
Source: WHO; UN WPP 2024
5.7%
of children & teens (5–19) live with obesity (2024)
Source: WHO
#154
highest adult obesity out of 199 countries
#1 = highest share
Source: WHO
The story of Bhutan in numbers
In 2024, about 13.1% of adults in Bhutan were living with obesity — about 1 in 8 adults, according to World Health Organization estimates (the likely range is 10.7% to 15.6%). That is roughly 76 thousand people aged 18 and over.
That is lower than the world average of 16.2%, and ranks 154th highest out of 199 countries. It is above the average for WHO’s South-East Asia region (8.3%).
Back in 1980, the figure was 0.8%. Since then it has gone up by 12.3 percentage points — about 16.4 times the 1980 level. In people, that is a change from about 2,000 to 76 thousand adults, partly because the population itself changed.
Women are more likely to live with obesity than men: 16.9% compared with 9.8%.
Among children and teenagers aged 5 to 19, 5.7% were living with obesity in 2024, compared with 0.5% in 1980 — around 11 thousand young people.
For context, 15.5% of adults had diabetes in 2022, 9.9% of adults did not get enough physical activity in 2022 and the food supply provided about 3,107 calories per person per day in 2023. These numbers don’t prove what causes obesity, but they help paint the picture.
How it changed
Adults with obesity in Bhutan: men, women and the world
What this meansSince 1980, the share of men went from 0.6% to 9.8%, and women from 1.0% to 16.9%.
- Men
- Women
- World
Show the numbers as a table
| Year | Men | Women | World |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1980 | 0.6% | 1.0% | 5.4% |
| 1985 | 0.8% | 1.5% | 6.0% |
| 1990 | 1.2% | 2.2% | 6.7% |
| 1995 | 1.7% | 3.1% | 7.6% |
| 2000 | 2.5% | 4.4% | 8.7% |
| 2005 | 3.5% | 6.0% | 10.1% |
| 2010 | 4.8% | 8.1% | 11.5% |
| 2015 | 6.3% | 10.8% | 13.0% |
| 2020 | 8.1% | 14.1% | 14.6% |
| 2024 | 9.8% | 16.9% | 16.2% |
Age-standardized WHO estimates. Shaded bands show the 95% uncertainty range.
Source: WHO Global Health Observatory.
Children & teens (5–19) with obesity in Bhutan
What this meansSince 1980, the share of boys went from 0.5% to 5.1%, and girls from 0.5% to 6.4%.
- Boys
- Girls
BMI-for-age more than 2 standard deviations above the WHO growth reference median.
Source: WHO Global Health Observatory.
Bhutan compared (2024)
What this meansHow Bhutan’s adult obesity rate compares with its region, countries at a similar income level, and the world.
- World16.2%
- Bhutan13.1%
- Lower-middle income countries12.0%
- South-East Asia (WHO region)8.3%
Source: WHO Global Health Observatory.
Food supply: calories per person per day in Bhutan
What this meansThe food available per person went from 3,235 calories a day in 2019 to 3,107 in 2023. This counts food available, not food actually eaten.
- Bhutan
- World
Countries ranked nearby
- 151. Togo13.4%
- 152. Mali13.3%
- 152. Yemen13.3%
- 154. Bhutan13.1%
- 155. Côte d'Ivoire12.8%
- 156. Angola12.7%
- 156. Guinea-Bissau12.7%
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