Europe · Country profile
Obesity in Netherlands
14.7% of adults live with obesity (2024). That ranks 145th highest of 199 countries.
14.7%
of adults live with obesity (2024)
Likely range 11.6%–18.2%
Source: WHO
2.5 million
adults with obesity (estimated number)
WHO rate × UN population
Source: WHO; UN WPP 2024
4.9%
of children & teens (5–19) live with obesity (2024)
Source: WHO
#145
highest adult obesity out of 199 countries
#1 = highest share
Source: WHO
The story of Netherlands in numbers
In 2024, about 14.7% of adults in Netherlands were living with obesity — about 1 in 7 adults, according to World Health Organization estimates (the likely range is 11.6% to 18.2%). That is roughly 2.5 million people aged 18 and over.
That is close to the world average of 16.2%, and ranks 145th highest out of 199 countries. It is below the average for WHO’s Europe region (20.9%).
Back in 1980, the figure was 6.5%. Since then it has gone up by 8.2 percentage points — about 2.3 times the 1980 level. In people, that is a change from about 707 thousand to 2.5 million adults, partly because the population itself changed.
Men and women are affected about equally: 14.2% of men and 15.1% of women.
Among children and teenagers aged 5 to 19, 4.9% were living with obesity in 2024, compared with 1.4% in 1980 — around 140 thousand young people.
For context, 6.4% of adults had diabetes in 2022, 9.4% of adults did not get enough physical activity in 2022 and the food supply provided about 3,467 calories per person per day in 2023. These numbers don’t prove what causes obesity, but they help paint the picture.
Netherlands has a national tax on sugar-sweetened drinks, first introduced in 1992, according to the World Bank’s Global SSB Tax Database.
How it changed
Adults with obesity in Netherlands: men, women and the world
What this meansSince 1980, the share of men went from 4.0% to 14.2%, and women from 8.5% to 15.1%.
- Men
- Women
- World
Show the numbers as a table
| Year | Men | Women | World |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1980 | 4.0% | 8.5% | 5.4% |
| 1985 | 5.0% | 9.2% | 6.0% |
| 1990 | 6.2% | 10.0% | 6.7% |
| 1995 | 7.8% | 11.1% | 7.6% |
| 2000 | 9.9% | 12.5% | 8.7% |
| 2005 | 11.9% | 13.6% | 10.1% |
| 2010 | 13.1% | 14.2% | 11.5% |
| 2015 | 13.4% | 14.5% | 13.0% |
| 2020 | 13.8% | 14.8% | 14.6% |
| 2024 | 14.2% | 15.1% | 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 Netherlands
What this meansSince 1980, the share of boys went from 1.6% to 5.4%, and girls from 1.2% to 4.4%.
- Boys
- Girls
BMI-for-age more than 2 standard deviations above the WHO growth reference median.
Source: WHO Global Health Observatory.
Netherlands compared (2024)
What this meansHow Netherlands’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%
- Netherlands14.7%
Source: WHO Global Health Observatory.
Food supply: calories per person per day in Netherlands
What this meansThe food available per person went from 3,020 calories a day in 1961 to 3,467 in 2023. This counts food available, not food actually eaten.
- Netherlands
- World
Countries ranked nearby
- 142. Cameroon16.0%
- 143. Spain15.3%
- 144. Somalia14.9%
- 145. Netherlands14.7%
- 145. Zimbabwe14.7%
- 147. Ghana14.5%
- 148. Denmark14.3%
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