Tue 22 May 2007
A cute visualization of obesity around the world
Posted by anjali under art for the masses , food policy , intl trade & econ[4] Comments
Here’s a wonderful visualization of obesity in various countries around the world (ok and it’s super cute too):
“The percentage of the population older than 15 with a body-mass index greater than 30.” We in the United States officially win. It’s interesting that Mexico’s 2nd in the world. Is the fast food industry as hopping in mexico as it is here? Does any of this have to do with NAFTA and cross-border exports into Mexico? Our other neighbor, Canada, is doing much better than both of us. What intuitively about mexico on its own could contribute to this high a rate of obesity? And what’s with the Slovak Republic and the Czech Republic both scoring in the top 10? And my dorky comment of the day — Hungary isn’t very hungry.
(though that’s a joking commentary about hungary. I know that food insecurity and food insufficiency are huge in the United States even though we’ve got the most obese people by percentage of total population, in the world).
thanks to ezra klein for the link, and thanks to wellingtongrey for the visualization.




May 22nd, 2007 at 8:58 pm
I can testify that the French are indeed skinny. I lived there for a year. Ate lunch every day with my French lab mates. They stayed skinny. I gained 100 lbs. What does that mean?
May 22nd, 2007 at 11:12 pm
Thank you for linking to my site.
-Grey
July 22nd, 2007 at 5:59 pm
newzealand are not that fat
February 21st, 2008 at 12:54 pm
you also have to take into mind that the information is probably biased, as it is taken from wikipedia.