Prevalence of Obesityin U.S. at 27.4%

U.S. population of obesity is increasing year by year. According to a recently released survey, obese Americans make up 27.4 % of the total population of the U.S. That's equivalent to 82 million people. The ratio is higher than 26.7 % in 2007. It also means that more Americans have become overweight or obese. The survey defines obesity as body mass index (BMI) is or higher 30 by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

The CDC has tallied the statistics since 1997. The Statistics show that the number of obese Americans is on the rise, climbing steadily over time. In 1997, the ratio of obese Americans who were above 20 years old was 19.4%, followed by 20.6% the following year. As a whole the survey, which took place over the course of 11 years, shows that 2003 was the only year in which the obese population was less than the preceding year (by 0.2%).

In addition, by analyzing the obesity ratio in various age brackets, the obese population between 40-59 years olds account for 30%; and for the 20-39 age bracket, it stands at a lower level of 25.2%.