Western Pacific · Country profile
Obesity in Samoa
64.3% of adults live with obesity (2024). That ranks 8th highest of 199 countries.
64.3%
of adults live with obesity (2024)
Likely range 59.2%–69.3%
Source: WHO
76 thousand
adults with obesity (estimated number)
WHO rate × UN population
Source: WHO; UN WPP 2024
25.0%
of children & teens (5–19) live with obesity (2024)
Source: WHO
#8
highest adult obesity out of 199 countries
#1 = highest share
Source: WHO
The story of Samoa in numbers
In 2024, about 64.3% of adults in Samoa were living with obesity — about 1 in 2 adults, according to World Health Organization estimates (the likely range is 59.2% to 69.3%). That is roughly 76 thousand people aged 18 and over.
That is higher than the world average of 16.2%, and ranks 8th highest out of 199 countries. It is above the average for WHO’s Western Pacific region (9.7%).
Back in 1980, the figure was 27.9%. Since then it has gone up by 36.4 percentage points — about 2.3 times the 1980 level. In people, that is a change from about 19 thousand to 76 thousand adults, partly because the population itself changed.
Women are more likely to live with obesity than men: 76.4% compared with 51.7%.
Among children and teenagers aged 5 to 19, 25.0% were living with obesity in 2024, compared with 2.6% in 1980 — around 20 thousand young people.
For context, 16.7% of adults had diabetes in 2022, 13.5% of adults did not get enough physical activity in 2022 and the food supply provided about 3,116 calories per person per day in 2023. These numbers don’t prove what causes obesity, but they help paint the picture.
Samoa has a national tax on sugar-sweetened drinks, first introduced in 1998, according to the World Bank’s Global SSB Tax Database.
How it changed
Adults with obesity in Samoa: men, women and the world
What this meansSince 1980, the share of men went from 17.9% to 51.7%, and women from 38.0% to 76.4%.
- Men
- Women
- World
Show the numbers as a table
| Year | Men | Women | World |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1980 | 17.9% | 38.0% | 5.4% |
| 1985 | 22.8% | 43.1% | 6.0% |
| 1990 | 27.9% | 48.2% | 6.7% |
| 1995 | 32.4% | 53.0% | 7.6% |
| 2000 | 36.4% | 57.5% | 8.7% |
| 2005 | 40.2% | 61.6% | 10.1% |
| 2010 | 43.7% | 65.6% | 11.5% |
| 2015 | 46.7% | 69.6% | 13.0% |
| 2020 | 49.4% | 73.5% | 14.6% |
| 2024 | 51.7% | 76.4% | 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 Samoa
What this meansSince 1980, the share of boys went from 2.3% to 21.5%, and girls from 2.9% to 28.7%.
- Boys
- Girls
BMI-for-age more than 2 standard deviations above the WHO growth reference median.
Source: WHO Global Health Observatory.
Samoa compared (2024)
What this meansHow Samoa’s adult obesity rate compares with its region, countries at a similar income level, and the world.
- Samoa64.3%
- Upper-middle income countries16.7%
- World16.2%
- Western Pacific (WHO region)9.7%
Source: WHO Global Health Observatory.
Food supply: calories per person per day in Samoa
What this meansThe food available per person went from 1,917 calories a day in 1961 to 3,116 in 2023. This counts food available, not food actually eaten.
- Samoa
- World
Countries ranked nearby
- 5. Tokelau70.7%
- 6. Niue66.9%
- 7. Tuvalu65.1%
- 8. Samoa64.3%
- 9. French Polynesia49.2%
- 10. Micronesia48.6%
- 11. Bahamas48.3%
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