More Australians are becoming obese, and people are becoming overweight by a greater margin, according to a new health survey.
Roy Morgan’s State of the Nation survey polled 50,000 people and assessed various health factors, including height and weight.
The findings show three out of five people had a body mass index over 25, meaning they would be classified as overweight or obese. The average amount by which people were overweight (compared with the average weight of those not overweight) has increased from 15.6kg in 2008 to 16.5kg in 2014.
According to Roy Morgan, this amounts to 180,000 tonnes of “extra” weight all up.
Click or scroll through for an animated explainer on the weight amounts
These findings are consistent with a recent paper in medical journal the Lancet, which said 63% of the adult population was overweight, putting Australia on a par with the US.
According to the study, obesity rates for Australia are increasing, and the rate of increase is among the fastest in the world.
Worldwide, overweight and obesity rose 27·5% for adults and 47·1% for children between 1980 and 2013. The number of overweight and obese individuals increased from 857 million people in 1980 to 2.1 billion in 2013.
Overweight and obesity is more prevalent in regional and rural areas. Medicare Local figures show rates of overweight and obesity are worse outside the inner metropolitan areas, as the following map shows (click regions to get specific rates):
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