Obesity in Singapore

In 2024, about 17.0% of adults in Singapore were living with obesity — about 1 in 6 adults, according to World Health Organization estimates (the likely range is 14.4% to 19.8%). That is roughly 831 thousand people aged 18 and over.

That is close to the world average of 16.2%, and ranks 137th highest out of 199 countries. It is above the average for WHO’s Western Pacific region (9.7%).

Back in 1980, the figure was 4.7%. Since then it has gone up by 12.3 percentage points — about 3.6 times the 1980 level. In people, that is a change from about 63 thousand to 831 thousand adults, partly because the population itself changed.

Men are more likely to live with obesity than women: 18.2% compared with 15.5%.

Among children and teenagers aged 5 to 19, 15.6% were living with obesity in 2024, compared with 1.8% in 1980 — around 123 thousand young people.

Obesity is not the only weight problem here: 6.4% of adults are underweight (BMI under 18.5). Health experts call this mix the “double burden” of malnutrition.

For context, 13.1% of adults had diabetes in 2022 and 23.2% of adults did not get enough physical activity in 2022. These numbers don’t prove what causes obesity, but they help paint the picture.