Childhood obesity quadruples worldwide, affecting 170 million, WHO says

Obesity among children and adolescents aged 5 to 19 has quadrupled worldwide since 1990, with 170 million affected in 2024, the World Health Organization (WHO) said Wednesday.

The proportion of people in this age group living with obesity rose from 2% in 1990 to 8% in 2024, according to the WHO. The total included 70 million children aged 5 to 9 and 100 million adolescents aged 10 to 19.

The figures were released alongside the WHO’s first guidelines on obesity care for children and adolescents. The agency recommends structured interventions focused on diet, physical activity and behavioural change.

Weight-loss medicines, bariatric surgery and weight-loss devices should not be used to treat children aged 0 to 9, the WHO said.

For adolescents aged 10 to 19, approved medicines “may be considered” only if a supervised, multimodal lifestyle programme has not achieved the desired results. Bariatric surgery may be considered for severe obesity, subject to strict conditions.

Obesity can raise the risk of conditions including type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease from an early age, the WHO warned. It also pointed to associated mental health impacts, including stigma, bullying, anxiety, depression and low self-esteem, and called for physical and mental health to be addressed together.

“The foundation of obesity care for children and adolescents is not medicine or surgery, but access to comprehensive support that enables healthy eating, physical activity and sustainable behaviour change,” said Dr Luz Maria De Regil, director of the WHO Department of Nutrition and Food Safety.

De Regil said the priority should be ensuring that every child and adolescent can access “quality care and supportive environments from an early age,” helping them achieve and maintain a healthy weight and supporting lifelong health and wellbeing.

The WHO said care should extend beyond weight loss to focus on overall health, functioning and wellbeing. It called for long-term, age-appropriate support tailored to children and their families.

The agency also cautioned that treatment alone cannot reverse rising obesity rates, urging measures to make healthy diets and physical activity more accessible and affordable.