Eurostat analyzed data for 2008 and 2009 reported by 19 EU member states and showed that obesity rate in Europe varies, in the case of women, between 8% (in Romania) and 23.9% (in the UK), and in the case of men, between 7.6% (in Romania) and 24.7% (in Malta).
According to Eurostat, in the United States, 26.8% of women and 27.6% of men suffered from obesity in 2009.
Romania has the lowest obesity rate in the EU and is followed by Italy (9.3% for women and 11.3% for men), Bulgaria (11.3% for women and 11.6% for men) and France (12.7% for women and 11.7% for men).
The highest share of obese women was recorded in the United Kingdom (23.9%), Malta (21.1%), Latvia (20.9%) and Estonia (20.5% in 2006/7), and of men in Malta (24.7%), the United Kingdom (22.1%), Hungary (21.4%) and the Czech Republic (18.4%), reads the survey.
According to Eurostat, the share of obese persons varies between age groups. In Romania, 1.6% of women aged between 18 and 24 are obese, while 4.1% of those aged between 25 and 44, and 13.7% of those aged 45 to 64 suffer from obesity. About 10.8% of women aged over 65 are obese.
In the case of Romanian men, the highest rate of obesity (10.7%) is recorded in the age group 45-64 and the lowest rate (1.8%) in the age group 18-24. Data show that 6.3% of men aged between 25 and 44 and 10.5% of those aged over 65 are obese.