Have you tried
Swivel Business?

Percent Obesity by Per Capita GDP

By dpennypacker on Jul 09, 2007
Viewed 9184 times

Graph Table Map More Options

Sort	Data Aggregation
Highest Lowest Alphabetical	Average High Low Total Count Distinct None

Country	Percent Obesity	Per Capita GDP

United States	32.2	41,657
Mexico	24.2	9,989
United Kingdom	23.0	33,637
Canada	22.4	33,495
Greece	21.9	29,212
Australia	21.7	32,863
New Zealand	20.9	24,089
Hungary	18.8	16,477
Luxembourg	18.2	57,392
Slovak Republic	15.4	15,575
Czech Republic	14.8	19,692
Finland	14.0	31,383
Spain	13.1	27,028
Ireland	13.0	33,199
Germany	12.9	29,853
Portugal	12.8	19,617
Belgium	12.7	32,901
Poland	12.5	13,433
Iceland	12.4	34,922
Turkey	12.0	7,698
Netherlands	10.9	35,435
Sweden	9.8	32,025
Denmark	9.5	34,208
France	9.5	30,401
Austria	9.1	34,043
Italy	9.0	28,002
Norway	8.3	47,467
Switzerland	7.7	39,197
Japan	3.2	29,739
Korea	3.2	22,078
more...	more...	more...

Bling Compare

Sources: OECD Factbook (http://www.oecd.org/home/0,...)

This scatter plot shows that there is no simple correlation between a country’s per capita GDP and obesity rates. However there are certain trends present. Countries in Western Europe and Northern Europe are all tightly clustered. Similarly, Japan has a somewhat higher GDP then Korea, but they have very similar obesity rates. The United States is the outlier with 32% of its population being obese. Maybe obesity rates have more to do with cultural factors then with wealth? Whatever the reason, this trend graph shows that the world’s population is becoming increasingly obese. For the United States here is the Childhood Obesity by State and Adult Obesity by State. Here is a pie chart showing what % of states are taking measures to combat childhood obesity. And next time you're looking for a drink, think about what you're drinking You can go here to calculate your own BMI. —dpennypacker

Comments (4)

Joe Hellerstein says

Interesting

Coincidentally, I heard a snippet on this subject this morn on the Forum show on KQED radio here in the SF Bay Area. It was Prof. Michael Pollan of UC Berkeley giving a very different story here within the US:

a) the biggest factor correlating with obesity in the US is income

b) you get way more calories per dollar from unhealthy packaged foods than healthy foods

His point: poor people are fatter because unhealthy food is a better deal.

But his subsidiary point was that the economics behind this are artificial. There's no good reason chee-tos should be cheaper per calorie than carrots. It's an artifact of US federal farm subsidies.

Pollan had a New York Times editorial on this recently.

It's based on research from a Professor at U. Washington named Adam Drenowski. I couldn't find any raw data, but he has some nice plots in an NIH conference paper.

Joe

posted about 1 year ago

Anonymous says

Links to the relevant articles:

- Today's Forum show: http://www.kqed.org/.stream...

- Pollan's NY Times editorial (4/22/07): http://www.nytimes.com/2007...

- Drenowski's article: http://www.niehs.nih.gov/dr...

posted about 1 year ago

sara

sara says

I don't think GDP and Obesity is a valid comparison. I read Omnivore's Dilemma (a must read) by Michael Pollan and the gist seemed to be about corn syrup. And as a farmer's daughter, I know the farm subsidy bill makes it so that something with about 25 highly processed ingredients is cheaper than a bag of carrots. Plus the way people are marketed and there is little decent education on the topic of nutrition for our kids. School cafeteria's are sponsored by fast food chains in many places. That is why we are fat. Not because of our per capita income.

posted about 1 year ago

tallulah

tallulah says

What a great and thought provoking set of data!

Here’s what I think: We are fat, as a nation, because we are in thrall to the moneyed rich and to corporate greed! They control our food supply and our politicians (read farm subsidy & related laws) to maximize profit! Their profit, not our health!

To quote my favorite president:

"I see in the near future a crisis approaching that unnerves me and causes me to tremble for the safety of my country. . . . corporations have been enthroned and an era of corruption in high places will follow, and the money power of the country will endeavor to prolong its reign by working upon the prejudices of the people until all wealth is aggregated in a few hands and the Republic is destroyed."
-- U.S. President Abraham Lincoln, Nov. 21, 1864
(letter to Col. William F. Elkins)
Ref: The Lincoln Encyclopedia, Archer H. Shaw (Macmillan, 1950, NY)

It’s sad to say but Abe’s observation of 140 years ago is dead-on today, even with regard to our food-chain. They’ve done a pretty good job of prolonging their reign!

You see, there’s not much corporate profit in organic, family-grown vegetables and juice and water – but there is in McDonald’s fries and Kellogg Sugar-Extreme Atomic Puff cereals and Coca-Cola with extra syrup!

So we Americans are fat.

posted about 1 year ago