Overweight and obesity are major risk factors for numerous non-communicable diseases, including cardiovascular diseases, diabetes, and certain types of cancer. The excessive accumulation of body fat is a significant public health concern across the EU, contributing to increased morbidity and mortality rates. In 2021, an estimated 420 000 deaths in the EU were associated with an excessive body mass index (BMI), highlighting the large impact of overweight and obesity on population health (IHME, 2024[1]).
Based on self-reported data, in 2022 over half of the EU population was either overweight or obese. The prevalence of overweight and obesity was consistently higher among men compared to women across all EU countries. On average, 44% of men in the EU were overweight compared to 30% of women, while 16% of men were obese compared to 14% of women (Figure 4.22). Overweight rates were highest among men in Romania (58%) and lowest in France and Belgium (both 38%). Among women, overweight rates were highest in Romania (41%) and lowest in Luxembourg (24%) and France (25%). Obesity rates varied more than threefold among EU countries; they were highest among men in Malta (29%) and Hungary (25%), while among women they were highest in Latvia (24%) and Estonia (23%). In contrast, obesity rates were below 10% in Italy and Romania for both men and women. In 2022, overweight rates (including obesity) across the EU were highest in Malta, where 62% of the population grappled with excess weight, followed closely with Latvia and Finland. In contrast, Italy boasted the lowest rate at 42%, followed by France and Cyprus.
Between 2017 and 2022, the EU’s overall overweight and obesity rate showed a marginal improvement, decreasing from 51.8% to 51.3%. However, this masks significant variations among countries. Only ten countries reduced their rates, while some experienced significant increases, such as the Slovak Republic with a rise of over 4 percentage points. In contrast, Czechia and Bulgaria achieved declines of nearly 6 percentage points (Figure 4.23).
Educational attainment plays a significant role in the prevalence of overweight and obesity in the EU. Less educated individuals are consistently more prone to overweight and obesity than the most educated. In 2022, 57% of those with lower education were overweight (including obesity), compared to 43% among those with higher education. This education gap varied considerably across EU countries; Portugal stood out with the most pronounced education gap, with a 23 percentage point difference between lower and higher education groups; Malta and Luxembourg follow with a near 20 percentage point gap. Conversely, Latvia had the smallest gap with a mere 1 percentage point difference between education levels, as the rate among the most educated was the highest in the EU, followed by Czechia (3.5 percentage points) and Ireland (5 percentage points) (Figure 4.24).
Recent years have seen EU countries implement diverse strategies to combat rising overweight and obesity rates. A standout initiative is the Nutri-Score front-of-pack color-coded labelling system to help consumers make healthier food choices, first introduced by France in 2017. The system’s effectiveness has led to wide adoption across the EU: Belgium introduced it in 2019, followed by Germany in 2020, Luxembourg in 2021 and the Netherlands in 2024 (OECD, 2022[2]; RIVM, 2024[3]). Additionally, in 2020 the EU has launched the Farm to Fork Strategy, which aims to make sustainable and healthy food more accessible for all Europeans. A key component of this initiative is the proposed establishment of nutrient profiles, which would restrict the promotion of food above certain maximum thresholds for fat, sugar and salt content (EPRS, 2022[4]).
