Overweight, females

Targets and indicators for Health 2020 version 3:
http://www.euro.who.int/en/health-topics/health-policy/health-2020-the-european-policy-for-health-and-well-being/publications/2016/targets-and-indicators-for-health-2020.-version-3-2016

European Health Information Initiative:
http://www.euro.who.int/en/data-and-evidence/european-health-information-initiative-ehii

The European Health Statistics App:
http://www.euro.who.int/en/data-and-evidence/the-european-health-statistics-app

(4) 1.1.d. Age-standardized prevalence of overweight and obesity in people aged 18 years and over (defined as a body mass index (BMI) ≥25 kg/m² for overweight and ≥30 kg/m² for obesity), where possible disaggregated by age and sex, reporting measured and selfreported data separately

Excess body weight predisposes people to various noncommunicable diseases, particularly cardiovascular diseases, diabetes and some cancers. Obesity is a growing public health problem across the WHO European Region, where more than 50% of the adult population is overweight (including obesity) in most Member States. Effective interventions exist to prevent and tackle overweight and obesity. Many of the risks diminish with weight loss.
Overweight and obesity:
• are defined as abnormal or excessive fat accumulation that may impair health;
• have important consequences for morbidity, disability and quality of life;
• entail higher risk of developing type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular diseases, several common forms of cancer, osteoarthritis and other health problems;
• are serious public health challenges in the WHO European Region.
Worldwide, more than 1.4 billion adults aged 20 and over were overweight in 2008. Of these, over 200 million men and nearly 300 million women were obese. In the WHO European Region the age-standardized prevalence of overweight was 58.3% among adult males and 51.2% among adult females.

The prevalence refers to the percentage of defined population aged 18 years and over with overweight or obesity (defined as a BMI ≥25 kg/m2 for overweight and ≥30 kg/m2 for obesity).

1) Regional averages were obtained from the Global Health Observatory, and are based on the country level data from the Global status report on noncommunicable diseases 2014 presented here. 2) The data presented here are WHO estimates, and not official statistics reported by countries to WHO.