Globally, obesity has overtaken underweight as the more prevalent form of malnutrition, placing children at risk of the life-threatening diseases obesity causes, UNICEF warns in a new global report today.
The report shows that high-income countries continue to have high levels of obesity, including Australia, where 36.3% of 5–19-year-olds are obese or overweight, compared to the global average of 19.8%, and a regional average of 22.3% (East Asia and the Pacific), data in a regional deep-dive report shows.
“High income countries have some of the highest rates of overweight and obese children in the world. To tackle this, Australia, along with governments across the world, must look to implement comprehensive mandatory policies to improve children’s food environments, including food labelling, food marketing restrictions, and food taxes and subsidies,” says Katie Maskiell, Head of Policy and Advocacy at UNICEF Australia.
In the Pacific, childhood overweight and obesity have reached some of the highest levels in the world. More than half of children aged 5–19 are overweight in the Cook Islands (62%), Tonga (56.5%), and Samoa (49.6%).
“It is concerning to see how unhealthy foods are undermining children's health in the Pacific. The vibrant, traditional diets that once nourished generations are being replaced by ultra-processed foods, and the result is devastating as obesity is now a greater threat than undernutrition," said UNICEF Pacific's Health and Nutrition Specialist, Dr. Frances Katonivualiku.
"This is a crisis driven by unhealthy food flooding our schools, screens, and shelves. We must act now to protect our children’s health by transforming food environments, supporting breastfeeding, and making nutritious food the easy choice for every child.”
Addressing the crisis of overweight and obesity is crucial not only to improve children’s health and wellbeing, but also for ensuring sustainable economic growth and development. An unhealthy population requires more resources for health services, and national economies are already seeing rapid increases in the direct healthcare costs related to overweight and obesity.
In UNICEF's global report, Feeding Profit: How Food Environments are Failing Children, UNICEF draws on data from over 190 countries and finds the prevalence of underweight among children aged 5-19 has declined since 2000, from nearly 13% to 9.2%, while obesity rates have increased from 3% to 9.4%. Obesity now exceeds underweight in all regions, except sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia.
The report warns that ultra-processed and fast foods – high in sugar, refined starch, salt, unhealthy fats and additives – are shaping children’s diets through unhealthy food environments, rather than personal choice. These products dominate shops and schools, while digital marketing gives the food and beverage industry powerful access to young audiences.
Without interventions to prevent childhood overweight and obesity, countries could face lifetime health and economic impacts. By 2035, the global economic impact of overweight and obesity is expected to surpass US$4 trillion annually.
To transform food environments and ensure children have access to nutritious diets, UNICEF is calling on governments, civil society, and partners to urgently:
- Implement comprehensive mandatory policies to improve children’s food environments, including food labelling, food marketing restrictions, and food taxes and subsidies.
- Implement social and behaviour change initiatives that empower families and communities to demand healthier food environments.
- Ban the provision or sale of ultra-processed and junk foods in schools and prohibit food marketing and sponsorship in schools.
- Establish strong safeguards to protect public policy processes from interference by the ultra-processed food industry.
- Strengthen social protection programs to address income poverty and improve financial access to nutritious diets for vulnerable families.