Obesity Rate Lowest in Hawaii, Highest in West Virginia

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- At 18.5%, Hawaii has the lowest adult obesity rate in the U.S., closely followed by Colorado at 19.8%. They are the only two states in which the obesity rate is below 20%. West Virginia has the highest adult obesity rate, at 37.0%. In addition to West Virginia, at least one in three adults are obese in Mississippi, Delaware, Arkansas and Oklahoma.

	Obese%
States with lowest obesity percentage
Hawaii	18.5
Colorado	19.8
Massachusetts	23.6
New Mexico	23.7
Nevada	23.9
California	23.9
Montana	24.1
New Hampshire	24.3
Utah	24.5
New Jersey	24.7
States with highest obesity percentage
West Virginia	37.0
Mississippi	35.5
Delaware	33.8
Arkansas	33.5
Oklahoma	33.5
Ohio	31.6
Maine	31.5
Michigan	31.5
Kentucky	31.4
South Carolina	31.4
Gallup-Healthways Well-Being Index, 2015

These data, from daily interviews conducted January through December 2015 as part of the Gallup-Healthways Well-Being Index, are based on U.S. adults' self-reports of their height and weight, which are then used to calculate Body Mass Index (BMI) scores. Americans who have a BMI of 30 or higher are classified as obese.

The national obesity rate reached a new high of 28.0% in 2015, up significantly from 25.5% in 2008, when Gallup and Healthways began tracking obesity. Fourteen states had statistically significant increases in their obesity rates from 2008 to 2015, while no state registered a statistically significant decline. Maine, West Virginia, Idaho and Oklahoma experienced the sharpest upticks in obesity.

	2008%	2015%	Increasepct. pts.
Maine	24.9	31.5	6.6
West Virginia	30.5	37.0	6.5
Idaho	24.0	29.7	5.7
Oklahoma	28.0	33.5	5.5
Iowa	26.4	31.3	4.9
Michigan	26.7	31.5	4.8
Ohio	27.6	31.6	4.0
South Carolina	27.6	31.4	3.8
North Carolina	26.7	30.4	3.7
Texas	27.1	30.7	3.6
Georgia	26.0	28.8	2.8
Washington	24.5	27.1	2.6
Florida	24.2	26.5	2.3
Pennsylvania	27.2	29.2	2.0
Gallup-Healthways Well-Being Index

Obesity Remains Highest in the South, Lowest in the West

Of the 18 states with obesity rates of at least 30.0%, all but one are located in the South or Midwest. Meanwhile, all 11 states with obesity rates below 25.0% are located in the Northeast or West.

Since 2008, the obesity rate for the Midwest has increased by 3.2 percentage points, more than any other region. The South followed closely behind, with a 2.9-point increase. The Northeast and West have seen smaller, but still statistically significant, increases of 2.0 and 1.8 points, respectively.

	2008%	2015%	Increasepct. pts.
Midwest	26.8	30.0	+3.2
South	27.0	29.9	+2.9
Northeast	24.2	26.2	+2.0
West	22.8	24.6	+1.8
Gallup-Healthways Well-Being Index

As Obesity Rates Rise, So Do Healthcare Costs

Given that obesity is associated with illnesses such as heart disease, diabetes, stroke, osteoarthritis and some forms of cancer, the medical costs for an obese person amounted to $1,429 more per year than for a person of a normal weight, according to research conducted in 2008 by RTI International and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. After adjusting for inflation, the annual medical costs for 2015 are $1,573 more for a person who is obese than for a person of a normal weight.

Gallup calculated the incremental cost of healthcare per year for each state by multiplying the estimated number of obese people in the state's population by the annual incremental $1,573 cost of obesity per person.

In the five most obese states, the annual incremental cost of obesity per 100,000 residents averages $54 million. By contrast, the average cost is $34 million in the five least obese states. In other words, per capita medical costs attributable to obesity are about 1.6 times higher in the five states with the highest obesity rates than in the states with the five lowest rates. Additional annual medical costs attributable to obesity for each state appear at the end of the article.

	Population (estimate)	Obese%	Annual healthcare cost per 100k adults	Annual healthcare costall adults
States with highest percentage of obese adults
West Virginia	1,452,598	37.0	$58,273,467	$846,479,005
Mississippi	2,163,049	35.5	$55,914,797	$1,209,464,207
Delaware	697,965	33.8	$53,223,481	$371,481,197
Arkansas	2,215,461	33.5	$52,743,928	$1,168,521,191
Oklahoma	2,767,117	33.5	$52,647,884	$1,456,828,340
States with lowest percentage of obese adults
Hawaii	1,049,465	18.5	$29,067,060	$305,048,588
Colorado	4,019,462	19.8	$31,109,252	$1,250,424,550
Massachusetts	5,144,065	23.6	$37,087,771	$1,907,818,922
New Mexico	1,596,641	23.7	$37,245,304	$594,673,741
Nevada	2,095,527	23.9	$37,539,385	$786,648,014
Gallup-Healthways Well-Being Index, 2015

Implications

As the adult obesity rate continues to rise both nationally and within many states, preventable healthcare costs will also rise. If states can lower their obesity rates, even modestly, they can achieve significant cost savings and improve their residents' well-being.

"There's no better time than now to comprehensively look at what drives people to make sustained changes in their lives, as the costs of obesity are staggering, both financially and personally," says Sean Slovenski, president, Population Health Services at Healthways. "We know from both science and experience that to be effective, the weight-loss journey needs to be personalized, easy to implement and supported."

But reducing obesity rates is no easy task. Gallup previously found that Americans are twice as likely to want to lose weight as to say they are seriously trying to do so. Most of the burden for reducing obesity falls on individuals and how motivated they are to consistently make healthier choices. This motivation is often difficult to find and maintain, but there are proven population health interventions that are effective in supporting sustained weight loss.

"We can reverse our nation's growing obesity epidemic," says Dan Buettner, National Geographic Fellow and founder of Blue Zones Project, a community well-being improvement initiative of Healthways and its community partners. "The key is creating an environment that makes the healthy choice not only easy but at times unavoidable -- so that people will eat less, eat better, move more and connect socially. Communities that have the courage to implement simple, evidence-based designs and policies that support lasting change, such as Los Angeles Beach cities, are seeing a measurable reduction in obesity and healthcare costs, and an increase in well-being."

In the long run, interventions designed to prevent and reduce obesity at both the individual and community levels can potentially lead to substantial cost savings for families, employers and states.

Survey Methods

Results are based on telephone interviews conducted Jan. 2-Dec. 30, 2015, as a part of the Gallup-Healthways Well-Being Index, with a random sample of 177,281 adults, aged 18 and older, living in all 50 U.S. states and the District of Columbia. For results based on the total sample of national adults, the margin of sampling error for the Well-Being Index score is ±0.1 point at the 95% confidence level. The margin of sampling error for most states is about ±0.6 points, although this increases to about ±1.6 points for the smallest population states such as North Dakota, Wyoming, Hawaii and Delaware. All reported margins of sampling error include computed design effects for weighting.

Each sample of national adults includes a minimum quota of 60% cellphone respondents and 40% landline respondents, with additional minimum quotas by time zone within region. Landline and cellular telephone numbers are selected using random-digit-dial methods.

Learn more about how the Gallup-Healthways Well-Being Index works.

	Population(estimate)	Obese%	Annual healthcare cost, $per 100k adults	Annual healthcare cost, $all adults
Alabama	3,605,323	31.3	49,226,788	1,774,784,825
Alaska	507,786	26.9	42,341,525	215,004,526
Arizona	4,997,570	25.2	39,607,728	1,979,424,088
Arkansas	2,215,461	33.5	52,743,928	1,168,521,191
California	28,976,914	23.9	37,568,175	10,886,097,470
Colorado	4,019,462	19.8	31,109,252	1,250,424,550
Connecticut	2,753,871	24.9	39,121,828	1,077,364,755
Delaware	697,965	33.8	53,223,481	371,481,197
Florida	15,310,183	26.5	41,640,933	6,375,302,924
Georgia	7,308,940	28.8	45,270,849	3,308,819,237
Hawaii	1,049,465	18.5	29,067,060	305,048,588
Idaho	1,143,436	29.7	46,672,559	533,670,743
Illinois	9,722,823	28.5	44,791,368	4,354,985,445
Indiana	4,787,573	30.8	48,507,743	2,322,343,645
Iowa	2,350,298	31.3	49,183,224	1,155,952,222
Kansas	2,122,250	29.4	46,246,165	981,459,412
Kentucky	3,388,106	31.4	49,371,304	1,672,751,984
Louisiana	3,401,841	30.9	48,678,881	1,655,978,248
Maine	1,059,901	31.5	49,616,061	525,881,043
Maryland	4,579,313	28.8	45,234,297	2,071,420,005
Massachusetts	5,144,065	23.6	37,087,771	1,907,818,922
Michigan	7,626,867	31.5	49,506,287	3,775,778,488
Minnesota	4,108,141	25.5	40,135,581	1,648,826,157
Mississippi	2,163,049	35.5	55,914,797	1,209,464,207
Missouri	4,599,839	29.9	47,037,567	2,163,652,388
Montana	761,679	24.1	37,963,384	289,159,074
Nebraska	1,382,728	30.8	48,440,906	669,805,974
Nevada	2,095,527	23.9	37,539,385	786,648,014
New Hampshire	1,047,071	24.3	38,252,914	400,535,242
New Jersey	6,783,035	24.7	38,811,280	2,632,582,873
New Mexico	1,596,641	23.7	37,245,304	594,673,741
New York	15,288,727	25.2	39,662,822	6,063,940,591
North Carolina	7,348,433	30.4	47,864,652	3,517,301,775
North Dakota	546,602	31.3	49,265,603	269,286,532
Ohio	8,845,679	31.6	49,668,724	4,393,535,766
Oklahoma	2,767,117	33.5	52,647,884	1,456,828,340
Oregon	3,092,890	27.1	42,567,733	1,316,573,044
Pennsylvania	10,088,111	29.2	45,922,440	4,632,706,653
Rhode Island	833,367	27.9	43,832,271	365,283,748
South Carolina	3,601,643	31.4	49,324,541	1,776,493,862
South Dakota	629,820	25.1	39,527,315	248,950,936
Tennessee	4,951,234	29.5	46,352,321	2,295,012,093
Texas	19,317,031	30.7	48,335,957	9,337,071,646
Utah	1,987,310	24.5	38,590,349	766,909,780
Vermont	496,733	27.5	43,201,649	214,596,826
Virginia	6,283,576	26.3	41,358,191	2,598,773,404
Washington	5,240,763	27.1	42,659,689	2,235,693,068
West Virginia	1,452,598	37.0	58,273,467	846,479,005
Wisconsin	4,288,406	27.4	43,094,391	1,848,062,566
Wyoming	440,048	25.8	40,556,297	178,467,077
Gallup-Healthways Well-Being Index, 2015