Obesity and Overweight Trends for Children in America

About 1 in 3 chil­dren and teens ages 6 to 17 in the Unit­ed States are liv­ing with obe­si­ty or over­weight, accord­ing to 2022–23 data on the KIDS COUNT Data Cen­ter. While this fig­ure has hov­ered around 32% to 34% in recent years, it has grown con­sid­er­ably over the last sev­er­al decades. Being over­weight or obese affects young people’s phys­i­cal and emo­tion­al health in the short-term and often has last­ing health risks into adult­hood. For exam­ple, kids who strug­gle with their weight face high­er risks of dia­betes, heart dis­ease and oth­er chron­ic con­di­tions as they age. Child­hood obe­si­ty and over­weight in Amer­i­ca are deeply con­nect­ed to the envi­ron­ments in which young peo­ple live, learn and play — includ­ing access to nutri­tious and afford­able foods, safe oppor­tu­ni­ties for phys­i­cal activ­i­ty, qual­i­ty health care and fam­i­ly resources.

This post explores what child­hood obe­si­ty and over­weight mean, why they devel­op and how rates dif­fer across com­mu­ni­ties and demo­graph­ic groups. Under­stand­ing these pat­terns is crit­i­cal for pol­i­cy­mak­ers, health pro­fes­sion­als, edu­ca­tors and fam­i­lies work­ing to sup­port health­i­er futures for young peo­ple. By exam­in­ing the caus­es and dis­par­i­ties sur­round­ing obe­si­ty in chil­dren, we can bet­ter iden­ti­fy solu­tions that fos­ter last­ing well-being and reduce health inequities across the country.

What is Child­hood Obe­si­ty or Overweight?

Child­hood obe­si­ty and over­weight are typ­i­cal­ly defined using a child’s Body Mass Index (BMI), a mea­sure­ment that com­pares height and weight and adjusts for age and sex. Chil­dren with a BMI between the 85^th and 95^th per­centiles are con­sid­ered over­weight, while those at or above the 95^th per­centile are con­sid­ered obese. Severe obe­si­ty refers to a BMI that is sig­nif­i­cant­ly above the 95^th per­centile. This approach to defin­ing these con­di­tions allows health providers to account for children’s nat­ur­al growth pat­terns, which change as they get older.

Researchers and clin­i­cians track BMI trends over time to under­stand how rates are shift­ing across com­mu­ni­ties and demo­graph­ic groups. Because BMI alone does not cap­ture every aspect of health, many health experts pair BMI data with oth­er mea­sures, such as metab­o­lism, and infor­ma­tion about nutri­tion, phys­i­cal activ­i­ty, fam­i­ly his­to­ry and social con­di­tions. Togeth­er, this pro­vides a clear­er pic­ture of children’s health and helps iden­ti­fy where addi­tion­al sup­port and resources may be most needed.

It is impor­tant to acknowl­edge that BMI is based on non-His­pan­ic white body types and it does not take into account race or eth­nic­i­ty. Being a larg­er size does not nec­es­sar­i­ly mean one is unhealthy, and label­ing chil­dren as over­weight or obese can be stig­ma­tiz­ing and harm­ful. The AMA has adopt­ed a pol­i­cy address­ing the lim­i­ta­tions of the BMI, and efforts are under way to improve mea­sures of obe­si­ty and overweight.

Read more about the med­ical field’s evolv­ing views on child­hood obesity

What Fac­tors Cause Child­hood Obe­si­ty and Overweight?

There is no sin­gle cause of child­hood obe­si­ty and over­weight in Amer­i­ca. Experts no longer focus nar­row­ly on indi­vid­ual behav­iors like diet and phys­i­cal activ­i­ty but, instead, describe this as a chro⁠nic health con­di­tion and point to a com­bi­na­tion of socioe­co­nom­ic, genet­ic and envi­ron­men­tal con­trib­u­tors. Under­stand­ing the risk fac­tors that can lead to child­hood obe­si­ty and over­weight helps high­light where poli­cies, pro­grams and local sup­ports can make the most mean­ing­ful difference.

Below are some of the key influ­ences that researchers and pedi­a­tri­cians iden­ti­fy as con­tribut­ing fac­tors for child­hood obe­si­ty and overweight:

• Nutri­tion and Food Access: Fam­i­lies may not always have access to fresh, afford­able foods, par­tic­u­lar­ly in neigh­bor­hoods where gro­cery stores are lim­it­ed and fast-food options are more com­mon. These bar­ri­ers can shape health and habits over time. Addi­tion­al­ly, the qual­i­ty of food avail­able in child care facil­i­ties and schools can influ­ence children’s weight. AAP, RWJF and oth­ers talk about the impor­tance of food envi­ron­ments in child care, school set­tings, etc.
• Phys­i­cal Activ­i­ty Oppor­tu­ni­ties: Safe play spaces, parks, recre­ation cen­ters and school-based phys­i­cal edu­ca­tion all sup­port active lifestyles. When these resources are lim­it­ed or inac­ces­si­ble, chil­dren may have few­er oppor­tu­ni­ties to be active.
• Fam­i­ly Income and House­hold Resources: Finan­cial strain can affect meal plan­ning, food access and choic­es, time avail­able for phys­i­cal activ­i­ty and the abil­i­ty to obtain qual­i­ty health care. Fam­i­lies expe­ri­enc­ing eco­nom­ic insta­bil­i­ty may face addi­tion­al stress that influ­ences health and wellness.
• Social and Emo­tion­al Well-Being: Stress, trau­ma, depres­sion and oth­er emo­tion­al chal­lenges are strong­ly linked to unhealthy weight. Depres­sion and child­hood obe­si­ty, in par­tic­u­lar, fre­quent­ly occur togeth­er. Sup­port­ing men­tal health — along with sleep and screen use — is often an impor­tant com­po­nent of address­ing obe­si­ty and over­weight in kids and teens.
• Genet­ics and Med­ical Con­di­tions: Fam­i­ly his­to­ry, biol­o­gy and cer­tain med­ical con­di­tions can increase a child’s like­li­hood of gain­ing weight. While these fac­tors play a role in what is con­sid­ered a chron­ic dis­ease, child­hood obe­si­ty is typ­i­cal­ly under­stood along­side a host of broad­er socioe­co­nom­ic, com­mu­ni­ty and struc­tur­al influences.

Togeth­er, these con­tribut­ing fac­tors reflect the broad­er sys­tems and envi­ron­ments that shape dai­ly life for young peo­ple and their fam­i­lies. Lead­ers can address the con­di­tions and risk fac­tors that lead to weight chal­lenges for kids. Pre­vent­ing and reduc­ing child­hood obe­si­ty effec­tive­ly requires coor­di­nat­ed efforts across health care, edu­ca­tion, com­mu­ni­ty orga­ni­za­tions and pub­lic pol­i­cy — with a focus on equi­ty and access to healthy opportunities.

Nation­al and State-Lev­el Trends of Child­hood Obesity

Child­hood obe­si­ty rates in the U.S. have remained high in recent years. Nation­al sur­vey data show that about 1 in 3 chil­dren and ado­les­cents ages 6 to 17 are liv­ing with obe­si­ty or over­weight — a lev­el that has per­sist­ed in recent years and, for some states, con­tin­ues to rise. These child­hood obe­si­ty and over­weight sta­tis­tics in Amer­i­ca under­score grow­ing con­cerns among pedi­a­tri­cians, pub­lic health lead­ers and com­mu­ni­ty orga­ni­za­tions work­ing to sup­port the health and well-being of young people.

Rates of obe­si­ty or over­weight among young peo­ple vary across the coun­try and are influ­enced by dif­fer­ences in local eco­nom­ic con­di­tions, poli­cies, infra­struc­ture, house­hold income and access to food and com­mu­ni­ty resources. For exam­ple, chil­dren liv­ing in South­ern areas of the coun­try tend to have high­er rates of obe­si­ty or over­weight com­pared to those in oth­er regions, reflect­ing these types of dif­fer­ences. In 2022–23, 20 states and D.C. exceed­ed the nation­al rate (32%) of obese or over­weight chil­dren — more than half of these states were locat­ed in the South­ern region of the nation (see map below). In three states, at least 2 in 5 kids were strug­gling with obe­si­ty or over­weight, the high­est shares in the coun­try: Mis­sis­sip­pi (43% in 2022–23), West Vir­ginia (41%) and Arkansas (40%).

State map of chil­dren and teens over­weight or obese, 2022–2023

About half of the states includ­ing D.C. saw their rates of child­hood obe­si­ty or over­weight wors­en from 2016–17 (the ear­li­est year avail­able on the KIDS COUNT Data Cen­ter) to 2022–23, with three states expe­ri­enc­ing jumps of 6 per­cent­age points: Arkansas, Alas­ka and Arizona.

Inequities in Child­hood Obe­si­ty and Over­weight by Demo­graph­ic Group

Rates of obe­si­ty and over­weight dif­fer sub­stan­tial­ly by racial and eth­nic group in Amer­i­ca. These dis­parate out­comes have per­sist­ed for decades, as under­ly­ing social deter­mi­nants of health (such as those out­lined above) play a key role in these chron­ic health con­di­tions. The 2025 KIDS COUNT Data Book report­ed, for instance, the fol­low­ing inequities for youth ages 10 to 17 who were obese or over­weight in 2022–23:

• Lati­no: 39%
• Black: 38%
• Amer­i­can Indi­an or Alas­ka Native: 34%
• Mul­tira­cial: 30%
• White: 26%
• Asian and Pacif­ic Islander: 22% 

Addi­tion­al groups of young peo­ple face ele­vat­ed risks of obe­si­ty, as well. These include but are not lim­it­ed to chil­dren and youth who:

• Live in fam­i­lies with low incomes or low parental edu­ca­tion lev­els, part­ly because they may have less access to nutri­tious food and phys­i­cal activ­i­ty opportunities.
• Live with dis­abil­i­ties or spe­cial health care needs.
• Have had two or more adverse child­hood events, which are poten­tial­ly trau­mat­ic expe­ri­ences that can threat­en a child’s phys­i­cal and men­tal health, such as fam­i­ly vio­lence, abuse or loss of a parent.

Also see child and teen obe­si­ty or over­weight sta­tis­tics in Amer­i­ca by gen­der

Under­stand­ing rates of child­hood obe­si­ty or over­weight in the U.S. — and how they dif­fer across states and demo­graph­ic groups — helps pol­i­cy­mak­ers and local lead­ers iden­ti­fy where tar­get­ed sup­ports are most need­ed. These data can guide invest­ments to improve nutri­tion pro­grams, phys­i­cal activ­i­ty oppor­tu­ni­ties, fam­i­ly resource cen­ters and oth­er strate­gies that pro­mote healthy growth for all children.

Ulti­mate­ly, reduc­ing the child and teen obe­si­ty or over­weight rate in Amer­i­ca will require lead­ers at all lev­els and in mul­ti­ple sec­tors to employ com­pre­hen­sive and equi­table approach­es to pre­ven­tion, health pro­mo­tion and access to care for families.