ANP
NOS Nieuws•vandaag, 04:10
16 percent of Dutch people aged 20 or older were obese in the past year. That is the highest percentage ever and three times as much as in the early 1980s, according to the latest figures from the Central Bureau of Statistics.
The figures show that more serious forms of obesity are also more common. In 1981, less than 1 percent of Dutch people were very seriously or extremely overweight; in 2023 it was 4 percent.
Obesity explained
Statistics Netherlands, together with the RIVM, has been keeping track of the height and weight of the Dutch population since the early 1980s. With these figures the BMI can be calculated, the Body Mass Index. An adult is overweight with a BMI of 25 or higher.
A BMI of 25 to 30 is considered moderately overweight. With a BMI of 30 or higher, someone is seriously overweight, or obese. From a BMI of 40 or higher you are considered morbidly obese.
More than a third of people over 20 in the Netherlands are overweight, but not obese. Together with the 16 percent who suffer from obesity, just over half of all Dutch people aged 20 and over are overweight. In the early 1980s that was 33 percent.
Dutch people were also asked what they thought of their own body weight. Nearly half of obese people consider themselves overweight. 3 percent have no problem with their own body weight.
At the end of last week, the World Health Organization released global figures on obesity. Then it became known that two years ago the threshold of one billion people with severe obesity was passed.
Malta most, Romania least
From a European perspective, the Netherlands does not score very badly. Obesity is increasing in 23 of the 27 EU countries. Only in Bulgaria, Romania and Italy is serious obesity a smaller problem than in the Netherlands.
Malta has the dubious honor of topping the rankings. More than a quarter of the residents of the archipelago are seriously overweight. This is followed by Hungary, Croatia and Latvia.
2024-03-04 03:10:13
#people #obese #over20s #overweight
