A worldwide study done by the University of Washington's Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME) revealed shocking numbers on the amount of people worldwide who are overweight or obese. The study was published in the 'New England Journal of Medicine', a weekly general medical journal.

Humanity's growing weight problem worldwide

According to a new study 2.2 billion people, or around 30 percent of the world population, were either overweight or obese in 2015. It also detailed how a growing amount of people are dying of health related problems due to the excess weight that they carry.

About 4 million people died from cardiovascular disease, cancer, diabetes and other aliments connected to being overweight or obese in 2015. This means that there has been a 28 percent increase in there types of deaths worldwide since 1990.

The research covered 195 countries and found that over 708 million people were found to be obese, meaning that they had a body mass index (BMI) over 30. This covered more then 600 million adults, or about 12 percent of all adults. Around 108 million children that are obese, which covers about 5 percent of children worldwide. Of the previously mentioned 4 million deaths, over 60 percent came from this group. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), obesity has more then doubled worldwide since 1980.

The countries with the most obese people

The country that has the highest percentage of obese people in their population is the South Pacific island of American Samoa, where a stunning 74.6% of their population are considered obese. In fact, nine of the top ten countries worldwide are islands in the South Pacific. The average weight of adults in the South Pacific is actually increasing at a rate four times higher than the global average.

There is debate about why this is the case, with some saying they are genetically susceptible to putting on weight. A 2014 report by Oxford University argued that colonial settlers are the cause, as the introduced fried food to the region.

Island countries are predominate on the list, with 13 of the top 14 countries being islands.

The top non-island country is Kuwait, with the small Middle Eastern country coming in at number ten. The rest of the top non-island countries coming in at the 15 through 20 spots. These countries are Belize, Qatar, Egypt, the United States of America, Saudi Arabia and Bahrain.
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