Americas · Country profile
Obesity in Paraguay
34.7% of adults live with obesity (2024). That ranks 39th highest of 199 countries.
34.7%
of adults live with obesity (2024)
Likely range 31.4%–38.0%
Source: WHO
1.6 million
adults with obesity (estimated number)
WHO rate × UN population
Source: WHO; UN WPP 2024
16.7%
of children & teens (5–19) live with obesity (2024)
Source: WHO
#39
highest adult obesity out of 199 countries
#1 = highest share
Source: WHO
The story of Paraguay in numbers
In 2024, about 34.7% of adults in Paraguay were living with obesity — about 1 in 3 adults, according to World Health Organization estimates (the likely range is 31.4% to 38.0%). That is roughly 1.6 million people aged 18 and over.
That is higher than the world average of 16.2%, and ranks 39th highest out of 199 countries. It is about level with the average for WHO’s Americas region (34.4%).
Back in 1980, the figure was 8.3%. Since then it has gone up by 26.4 percentage points — about 4.2 times the 1980 level. In people, that is a change from about 110 thousand to 1.6 million adults, partly because the population itself changed.
Women are more likely to live with obesity than men: 39.8% compared with 29.3%.
Among children and teenagers aged 5 to 19, 16.7% were living with obesity in 2024, compared with 1.9% in 1980 — around 316 thousand young people.
For context, 14.3% of adults had diabetes in 2022, 36.0% of adults did not get enough physical activity in 2022 and the food supply provided about 3,067 calories per person per day in 2023. These numbers don’t prove what causes obesity, but they help paint the picture.
Paraguay 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 Paraguay: men, women and the world
What this meansSince 1980, the share of men went from 6.1% to 29.3%, and women from 10.3% to 39.8%.
- Men
- Women
- World
Show the numbers as a table
| Year | Men | Women | World |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1980 | 6.1% | 10.3% | 5.4% |
| 1985 | 7.7% | 12.1% | 6.0% |
| 1990 | 9.6% | 14.2% | 6.7% |
| 1995 | 12.0% | 16.8% | 7.6% |
| 2000 | 14.8% | 19.7% | 8.7% |
| 2005 | 17.5% | 22.9% | 10.1% |
| 2010 | 20.3% | 26.6% | 11.5% |
| 2015 | 23.3% | 31.1% | 13.0% |
| 2020 | 26.6% | 35.9% | 14.6% |
| 2024 | 29.3% | 39.8% | 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 Paraguay
What this meansSince 1980, the share of boys went from 2.1% to 17.2%, and girls from 1.7% to 16.2%.
- Boys
- Girls
BMI-for-age more than 2 standard deviations above the WHO growth reference median.
Source: WHO Global Health Observatory.
Paraguay compared (2024)
What this meansHow Paraguay’s adult obesity rate compares with its region, countries at a similar income level, and the world.
- Paraguay34.7%
- Americas (WHO region)34.4%
- Upper-middle income countries16.7%
- World16.2%
Source: WHO Global Health Observatory.
Food supply: calories per person per day in Paraguay
What this meansThe food available per person went from 2,169 calories a day in 1961 to 3,067 in 2023. This counts food available, not food actually eaten.
- Paraguay
- World
Countries ranked nearby
- 35. Nicaragua34.9%
- 35. Uruguay34.9%
- 38. Saint Lucia34.8%
- 39. Paraguay34.7%
- 40. Antigua and Barbuda34.6%
- 40. Saint Vincent and the Grenadines34.6%
- 42. Bermuda34.1%
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