Europe · Country profile
Obesity in Denmark
14.3% of adults live with obesity (2024). That ranks 148th highest of 199 countries.
14.3%
of adults live with obesity (2024)
Likely range 12.4%–16.4%
Source: WHO
734 thousand
adults with obesity (estimated number)
WHO rate × UN population
Source: WHO; UN WPP 2024
5.4%
of children & teens (5–19) live with obesity (2024)
Source: WHO
#148
highest adult obesity out of 199 countries
#1 = highest share
Source: WHO
The story of Denmark in numbers
In 2024, about 14.3% of adults in Denmark were living with obesity — about 1 in 7 adults, according to World Health Organization estimates (the likely range is 12.4% to 16.4%). That is roughly 734 thousand people aged 18 and over.
That is lower than the world average of 16.2%, and ranks 148th highest out of 199 countries. It is below the average for WHO’s Europe region (20.9%).
Back in 1980, the figure was 6.0%. Since then it has gone up by 8.3 percentage points — about 2.4 times the 1980 level. In people, that is a change from about 260 thousand to 734 thousand adults, partly because the population itself changed.
Men are more likely to live with obesity than women: 15.5% compared with 13.2%.
Among children and teenagers aged 5 to 19, 5.4% were living with obesity in 2024, compared with 1.0% in 1980 — around 53 thousand young people.
For context, 2.3% of adults had diabetes in 2022, 12.1% of adults did not get enough physical activity in 2022 and the food supply provided about 3,734 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 Denmark: men, women and the world
What this meansSince 1980, the share of men went from 5.2% to 15.5%, and women from 6.7% to 13.2%.
- Men
- Women
- World
Show the numbers as a table
| Year | Men | Women | World |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1980 | 5.2% | 6.7% | 5.4% |
| 1985 | 6.6% | 7.2% | 6.0% |
| 1990 | 8.2% | 7.8% | 6.7% |
| 1995 | 9.9% | 8.5% | 7.6% |
| 2000 | 11.7% | 9.4% | 8.7% |
| 2005 | 13.4% | 10.2% | 10.1% |
| 2010 | 14.3% | 10.8% | 11.5% |
| 2015 | 14.4% | 11.5% | 13.0% |
| 2020 | 14.9% | 12.3% | 14.6% |
| 2024 | 15.5% | 13.2% | 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 Denmark
What this meansSince 1980, the share of boys went from 1.2% to 6.7%, and girls from 0.7% to 4.0%.
- Boys
- Girls
BMI-for-age more than 2 standard deviations above the WHO growth reference median.
Source: WHO Global Health Observatory.
Denmark compared (2024)
What this meansHow Denmark’s adult obesity rate compares with its region, countries at a similar income level, and the world.
- High income countries24.7%
- Europe (WHO region)20.9%
- World16.2%
- Denmark14.3%
Source: WHO Global Health Observatory.
Food supply: calories per person per day in Denmark
What this meansThe food available per person went from 3,189 calories a day in 1961 to 3,734 in 2023. This counts food available, not food actually eaten.
- Denmark
- World
Countries ranked nearby
- 145. Netherlands14.7%
- 145. Zimbabwe14.7%
- 147. Ghana14.5%
- 148. Denmark14.3%
- 149. Italy14.0%
- 150. Nigeria13.7%
- 151. Togo13.4%
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