Massachusetts is Among the Least Obese States

Image: obesity rates by state. Source: CDC

Written by Marc Torrence, Patch National Staff

The Centers For Disease Control and Prevention has released the latest data on nationwide adult obesity, and, not surprisingly, a bunch of people out there could stand to eat less or exercise more — and probably a bit of both.

But in Massachusetts, people are considerably healthier than most of the rest of the country. The commonwealth has one of the lowest obesity rates in the nation at 23.3 percent. Only Hawaii (22.1 percent), Washington, D.C. (21.7 percent) and Colorado (21.3 percent) have lower rates.

The state with the highest rate of obesity was Arkansas at 35.9 percent, followed by West Virginia (35.7 percent), Mississippi (35.5 percent), Louisiana (34.9 percent) and Alabama (33.5 percent). Colorado had the lowest.

The CDC defines obesity based on Body Mass Index, which is a person’s mass in kilograms divided by the square of his or her height in meters.

A person with a BMI of 30 or higher is considered obese.

So, for example, someone who is 5-foot-9 and 203 pounds would fall under that definition. If you want to calculate your own BMI, use the CDC’s handy calculator below:

Nationwide, 34.9 percent of adults and 17 percent of children 19 years and younger are obese, according to the CDC’s latest data.

Massachusetts has the 4th lowest adult obesity rate in the country, which includes Washington, D.C., Guam, and Puerto Rico.

A total of 23.3 percent of Massachusetts adults are considered obese. Non-Hispanic whites had the lowest obesity rate in Massachusetts (22.6%), followed by Hispanics (30.9%) and non-Hispanic blacks at (31.4%).

Regionally, Midwesterners were the most obese in terms of population, with 30.7 percent, followed closely by the South at 30.6. The Northeast (27.3) and West (25.7) had the lowest rates.

While every state in the country reported at least a 20 percent obesity rate, five states and the District of Columbia were below 25 percent, with California, Hawaii, Massachusetts and Vermont joining Colorado in that distinction.

The results were also broken out by race for the second time since the survey began.

Non-Hispanic blacks had the highest obesity rate at 38.1 percent, followed by Hispanics (31.3 percent) and non-Hispanic whites (27.1 percent).

You can read the full results from the obesity survey, which was released this week, here.

See where each state and its obesity rate ranks in the list below:

1. Arkansas, 35.9
2. West Virginia, 35.7
3. Mississippi, 35.5
4. Louisiana, 34.9
5. Alabama, 33.5
6. Oklahoma, 33
7. Indiana, 32.7
8. Ohio, 32.6
9. North Dakota, 32.2
10. South Carolina, 32.1
11. Texas, 31.9
12. Kentucky, 31.6
13. Kansas, 31.3
14. Tennessee, 31.2
15. Wisconsin, 31.2
16. Iowa, 30.9
17. Delaware, 30.7
18. Michigan, 30.7
19. Georgia, 30.5
20. Missouri, 30.2
21. Nebraska, 30.2
22. Pennsylvania, 30.2
23. South Dakota, 29.8
24. Alaska, 29.7
25. North Carolina, 29.7
26. Maryland, 29.6
27. Wyoming, 29.5
28. Illinois, 29.3
29. Arizona, 28.9
30. Idaho, 28.9
31. Virginia, 28.5
32. New Mexico, 28.4
33. Puerto Rico, 28.3
34. Maine, 28.2
35. Guam, 28
36. Oregon, 27.9
37. Nevada, 27.7
38. Minnesota, 27.6
39. New Hampshire, 27.4
40. Washington, 27.3
41. New York, 27
42. Rhode Island, 27
43. New Jersey, 26.9
44. Montana, 26.4
45. Connecticut, 26.3
46. Florida, 26.2
47. Utah, 25.7
48. Vermont, 24.8
49. California, 24.7
50. Massachusetts, 23.3
51. Hawaii, 22.1
52. District of Columbia, 21.7
53. Colorado, 21.3

The phone survey was conducted in all 50 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico and Guam by the The Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System, a “system of health-related telephone surveys that collect state data about U.S. residents regarding their health-related risk behaviors,” according to the CDC’s website.