Africa · Country profile
Obesity in Seychelles
33.9% of adults live with obesity (2024). That ranks 44th highest of 199 countries.
33.9%
of adults live with obesity (2024)
Likely range 30.3%–37.5%
Source: WHO
35 thousand
adults with obesity (estimated number)
WHO rate × UN population
Source: WHO; UN WPP 2024
18.0%
of children & teens (5–19) live with obesity (2024)
Source: WHO
#44
highest adult obesity out of 199 countries
#1 = highest share
Source: WHO
The story of Seychelles in numbers
In 2024, about 33.9% of adults in Seychelles were living with obesity — about 1 in 3 adults, according to World Health Organization estimates (the likely range is 30.3% to 37.5%). That is roughly 35 thousand people aged 18 and over.
That is higher than the world average of 16.2%, and ranks 44th highest out of 199 countries. It is above the average for WHO’s Africa region (12.7%).
Back in 1980, the figure was 9.1%. Since then it has gone up by 24.8 percentage points — about 3.7 times the 1980 level. In people, that is a change from about 3,000 to 35 thousand adults, partly because the population itself changed.
Women are more likely to live with obesity than men: 44.9% compared with 25.1%.
Among children and teenagers aged 5 to 19, 18.0% were living with obesity in 2024, compared with 1.3% in 1980 — around 5,000 young people.
For context, 13.9% of adults had diabetes in 2022, 20.4% of adults did not get enough physical activity in 2022 and the food supply provided about 2,888 calories per person per day in 2023. These numbers don’t prove what causes obesity, but they help paint the picture.
Seychelles has a national tax on sugar-sweetened drinks, first introduced in 2019, according to the World Bank’s Global SSB Tax Database.
How it changed
Adults with obesity in Seychelles: men, women and the world
What this meansSince 1980, the share of men went from 2.3% to 25.1%, and women from 15.7% to 44.9%.
- Men
- Women
- World
Show the numbers as a table
| Year | Men | Women | World |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1980 | 2.3% | 15.7% | 5.4% |
| 1985 | 3.4% | 18.3% | 6.0% |
| 1990 | 5.0% | 21.3% | 6.7% |
| 1995 | 7.2% | 24.5% | 7.6% |
| 2000 | 9.9% | 28.0% | 8.7% |
| 2005 | 12.9% | 31.4% | 10.1% |
| 2010 | 15.7% | 34.5% | 11.5% |
| 2015 | 18.2% | 37.7% | 13.0% |
| 2020 | 21.6% | 41.5% | 14.6% |
| 2024 | 25.1% | 44.9% | 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 Seychelles
What this meansSince 1980, the share of boys went from 1.0% to 18.1%, and girls from 1.5% to 18.0%.
- Boys
- Girls
BMI-for-age more than 2 standard deviations above the WHO growth reference median.
Source: WHO Global Health Observatory.
Seychelles compared (2024)
What this meansHow Seychelles’s adult obesity rate compares with its region, countries at a similar income level, and the world.
- Seychelles33.9%
- High income countries24.7%
- World16.2%
- Africa (WHO region)12.7%
Source: WHO Global Health Observatory.
Food supply: calories per person per day in Seychelles
What this meansThe food available per person went from 2,830 calories a day in 2010 to 2,888 in 2023. This counts food available, not food actually eaten.
- Seychelles
- World
Countries ranked nearby
- 40. Saint Vincent and the Grenadines34.6%
- 42. Bermuda34.1%
- 43. New Zealand34.0%
- 44. Seychelles33.9%
- 45. Libya33.7%
- 46. Syria33.0%
- 47. Costa Rica32.7%
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