A third of all humans are either overweight or obese: Study

More than one in 10 people worldwide are now obese and 2.2 billion are believed to be overweight.

The revelation was made in a new research published on 12 June 2017 in The New England Journal of Medicine.

The study was based on the latest data provided by the Global Burden of Disease (GBD) study, which tracks the impact of more than 300 types of pathology and injury in 133 countries.

The study was conducted in 195 countries over a 35-year period. It is seen as the most comprehensive research carried out to date on the subject of obesity.

Key highlights of the study

• Obesity numbers have more than doubled in 73 countries and surged elsewhere around the world since the launch in 1980 of the study.

• At the conclusion of the study in 2015, 107.7 million children and 603.7 million adults worldwide were deemed to be obese, triggering what its authors described as "a growing and disturbing global public health crisis."

• Even though the obesity rate in children remained lower than among adults, it had grown at a faster rate during the study period.

• A total of 2.2 billion people, 30 per cent of the world population, were believed to be either obese or overweight by 2015.

• Excess weight is linked to sharply increased rates of cardiovascular disease, diabetes and some types of cancer. Four million deaths in 2015 were linked to having a Body Mass Index (BMI) of over 24.5, indicating a person is overweight, or of 30 or more, indicating obesity.

• Of the world's most populous countries, the rate of obesity among children and young adults was highest in the United States, at 13 per cent, while Egypt had the highest rate of obesity among adults, at 35 per cent of the population.

• The lowest rates of adult obesity were in Bangladesh and Vietnam, both at one per cent.

• China and India had the highest number of obese children - 15.3 and 14.4 million respectively.

• The United States and China, meanwhile, had the greatest number of obese adults - 79.4 and 57.3 million respectively.