India overtakes US in childhood obesity, second only to China: By 2040, 20 mn children will be living with it in the country, says global report

Key Highlights

• Worldwide, the atlas found that more than one in five (20.7 per cent) in the 5-19 age group are living with obesity or are overweight, an increase of 14.6 per cent since 2010.
• Of the eight countries projected to have more than 10 million children with high BMI, China, India and the US each had over 10 million children living with obesity.
• China leads both categories, with 62 million children with high BMI and 33 million with only obesity, followed by India and the US (27 million high BMI; 13 million obesity).
• The Atlas presents a series of childhood obesity prevalence projections for the period 2025 to 2040.
• Estimates suggest that in this period, 20 million children in India will be living with obesity and 56 million will be either overweight or living with obesity.