Americas · Country profile
Obesity in Brazil
30.1% of adults live with obesity (2024). That ranks 65th highest of 199 countries.
30.1%
of adults live with obesity (2024)
Likely range 27.4%–33.0%
Source: WHO
49.9 million
adults with obesity (estimated number)
WHO rate × UN population
Source: WHO; UN WPP 2024
17.4%
of children & teens (5–19) live with obesity (2024)
Source: WHO
#65
highest adult obesity out of 199 countries
#1 = highest share
Source: WHO
The story of Brazil in numbers
In 2024, about 30.1% of adults in Brazil were living with obesity — about 1 in 3 adults, according to World Health Organization estimates (the likely range is 27.4% to 33.0%). That is roughly 49.9 million people aged 18 and over.
That is higher than the world average of 16.2%, and ranks 65th highest out of 199 countries. It is below the average for WHO’s Americas region (34.4%).
Back in 1980, the figure was 6.3%. Since then it has gone up by 23.8 percentage points — about 4.8 times the 1980 level. In people, that is a change from about 3.6 million to 49.9 million adults, partly because the population itself changed.
Women are more likely to live with obesity than men: 33.9% compared with 26.1%.
Among children and teenagers aged 5 to 19, 17.4% were living with obesity in 2024, compared with 1.6% in 1980 — around 7.6 million young people.
For context, 12.9% of adults had diabetes in 2022, 40.4% of adults did not get enough physical activity in 2022 and the food supply provided about 3,423 calories per person per day in 2023. These numbers don’t prove what causes obesity, but they help paint the picture.
Brazil has a national tax on sugar-sweetened drinks, first introduced in 1965, according to the World Bank’s Global SSB Tax Database.
How it changed
Adults with obesity in Brazil: men, women and the world
What this meansSince 1980, the share of men went from 3.5% to 26.1%, and women from 8.9% to 33.9%.
- Men
- Women
- World
Show the numbers as a table
| Year | Men | Women | World |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1980 | 3.5% | 8.9% | 5.4% |
| 1985 | 4.5% | 10.1% | 6.0% |
| 1990 | 5.7% | 11.4% | 6.7% |
| 1995 | 7.4% | 13.0% | 7.6% |
| 2000 | 9.4% | 15.0% | 8.7% |
| 2005 | 11.7% | 17.3% | 10.1% |
| 2010 | 14.5% | 20.5% | 11.5% |
| 2015 | 18.1% | 25.0% | 13.0% |
| 2020 | 22.3% | 29.9% | 14.6% |
| 2024 | 26.1% | 33.9% | 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 Brazil
What this meansSince 1980, the share of boys went from 1.4% to 17.9%, and girls from 1.8% to 16.8%.
- Boys
- Girls
BMI-for-age more than 2 standard deviations above the WHO growth reference median.
Source: WHO Global Health Observatory.
Brazil compared (2024)
What this meansHow Brazil’s adult obesity rate compares with its region, countries at a similar income level, and the world.
- Americas (WHO region)34.4%
- Brazil30.1%
- Upper-middle income countries16.7%
- World16.2%
Source: WHO Global Health Observatory.
Food supply: calories per person per day in Brazil
What this meansThe food available per person went from 2,220 calories a day in 1961 to 3,423 in 2023. This counts food available, not food actually eaten.
- Brazil
- World
Countries ranked nearby
- 62. Australia30.6%
- 62. Malta30.6%
- 64. Oman30.5%
- 65. Brazil30.1%
- 65. Guyana30.1%
- 67. Bolivia29.7%
- 68. Eswatini29.6%
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