Today, the toll of obesity on health systems alone is between 2% and 7% of all health care spending
in developed economies. That does not include the large cost of treating associated diseases such a
type 2 diabetes and heart disease, which takes the healthcare cost up to 20% by some estimates.
Obesity is a global problem and the problem is escalating rapidly. Worldwide, if the prevalence of
obesity continues on its current upward trajectory, almost half of the world’s adult population will be
overweight or obese by 2030.
No country managed to reduce its obesity prevalence between 2000 and 2013. During this period,
prevalence grew by 0.5 percentage points or more a year in 130 of the 196 countries for which the
OECD documents obesity prevalence data (OECD 2014). This was once a problem of relatively
prosperous developed economies but, as incomes rise in the emerging world, the problem is
spreading. Today, around 60% of the world’s obese people are in developing countries.
There is growing evidence that, on top of the costs to healthcare systems, the productivity of
employees is being undermined by obesity, compromising the competitiveness of companies. MGI
assessed the productivity lost to obesity using the standard measurement of disability-adjusted life
years, or DALYs, which measure the number of years that are lost or rendered economically
unproductive due to disease. The number of DALYs lost to obesity today is three times as high in
developed economies as it is in emerging markets. However, that gap is narrowing. The rise in the
number of DALYs per 100,000 people lost because of obesity slowed in developed economies
between 1990 and 2010 but soared by 90% in emerging economies.