The obesity rate among adults continues to rise, with the densest population of obese people in America residing in Mississippi, according to a new report.
Since Gallup began tracking the obesity rate in 2008, the percentage of obese adults has increased nearly every year. According to the most recent Gallup-Healthways Well-Being Index, 2013 was no exception, with the obesity rate (defined as having a Body Mass Index over 30) increasing from 26.2 percent in 2012 to 27.1 percent in 2013.
Gallup released its list Tuesday of the most and least obese states in the nation in 2013. Mississippi came in as the state with the highest obesity rate at 35.4 percent, knocking West Virginia — which held the title for the past two years — out of the top slot. But West Virginia is still the second most obese state, with a rate of 34.4 percent.
Delaware, Louisiana, Arkansas, South Carolina, Tennessee, Ohio, Kentucky, and Oklahoma came next.
In 2013, Montana was the least obese state, with an obesity rate of 19.6 percent. Colorado followed — it had been the least obese state from 2010 through 2012 — with an obesity rate of 20.4 percent. Nevada, Minnesota, Massachusetts, Connecticut, New Mexico, California, Hawaii, and New York placed third through tenth, respectively.
Gallup based its results on telephone interviews with a random sample of 178,072 adults, as part of the Index survey from Jan 2 – Dec. 2013. For most of the states sampled, the sampling error was +/-1 to +/-2 percentage points. For smaller states like Wyoming and Hawaii, the sampling error was as high as +/14 percentage points.