"Great tragedy"

Soon six out of ten people will be overweight

According to calculations, six out of ten adults will be overweight by 2050 (symbolic image).(Bild: africa-studio.com/stock.adobe.com)

People around the world are getting fatter and fatter. By 2050, around 60 percent of adults will be overweight or obese. This is according to a new study by the medical journal "The Lancet", which examined 204 countries and regions.

According to the study, one in three young people will be overweight or obese by 2050. Around a quarter of those affected will be over 65 years old. "This will further exacerbate the burden on already overburdened healthcare systems and have devastating consequences for healthcare in countries with limited resources," it says.

Countries in the Pacific, South America and the Middle East will be particularly affected. In the Arab Emirates, Kuwait and Syria, 94 percent of over 25-year-olds are expected to be overweight or obese by 2050. In countries with a high gross national product, people in Chile, Australia, Greece, the USA and New Zealand in particular are expected to be overweight by 2050.

Austria not among the leaders
Austria is not among the leaders. Nevertheless, 57.8 percent of the population is expected to be overweight or obese in 25 years' time. This proportion has risen continuously since the 1990s.

"The unprecedented global epidemic of overweight and obesity is a major tragedy and a monumental societal failure," said the lead author of the study, Emmanuela Gakidou from the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME) at the University of Washington (USA). "Urgent political reforms and measures" are needed to counteract this development.