The number of obese adults will reach 1.2bn globally by 2030, according to estimates in a new report by five United Nations (UN) specialised agencies.
Published on 24 July, the UN’s latest ‘State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World’ (SOFI) report estimated a steady increase in adult obesity over the last decade, from 12.1% in 2012 to 15.8% in 2022.
Projections in the annual report indicated that by 2030, the world would have more than 1.2bn obese adults.
Although obesity had surged in the last two decades, the numbers of thin and underweight people had declined, the report said.
The double burden of malnutrition – the co-existence of undernutrition alongside levels of being overweight and obesity – had also surged globally across all age groups.
These trends underlined the complex challenges of malnutrition in all its forms and the urgent need for targeted interventions as the world was not on track to reach any of the World Health Organization (WHO)’s global nutrition targets by 2030, the five UN agencies said.
The report said that access to adequate food remained out of reach for billions of people globally.
In 2023, around 2.33bn people globally faced moderate or severe food insecurity, a number that had not changed significantly since the sharp upturn in 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The lack of economic access to healthy diets also remained a critical issue, affecting over one-third of the global population, the report found.
“With new food price data and methodological improvements, the publication reveals that over 2.8bn people were unable to afford a healthy diet in 2022. This disparity is most pronounced in low-income countries, where 71.5% of the population cannot afford a healthy diet, compared to 6.3% in high-income countries,” the report said.
Although the number of people unable to access a healthy diet dropped below pre-pandemic levels in Asia, Europe and Northern America, levels increased substantially in Africa, according to the report.
“Food insecurity and malnutrition are worsening due to a combination of factors, including persisting food price inflation that continues to erode economic gains for many people in many countries. Major drivers like conflict, climate change and economic downturns are becoming more frequent and severe,” the report said.
“These issues, along with underlying factors such as unaffordable healthy diets, unhealthy food environments and persistent inequality are now coinciding simultaneously, amplifying their individual effects.”
The State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World report is published annually by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF), the UN World Food Programme (WFP) and the World Health Organization (WHO).
