Counties with highest and lowest obesity rates, 2007
NOTE (01/2021): PolicyMap no longer supports CDC yearly obesity and USDA Food Environment Atlas’s data. Read about our new health estimates data.
It’s always interesting when a map shows clear differentiating trends across the country that reflect distinctive aspects of different regions. Our religion maps are a good example of this, where different regions reflect different religious characteristics. Another more pernicious example of this is the map of adult obesity rates. There’s a clear concentration of obese adults in the Deep South, where county rates are often above 30%. Of the top ten counties with the highest rates of adult obesity, five are in Alabama, and five are in Mississippi.
Conversely, there’s a dearth of obesity in the country’s Mountain West. Of the top ten counties with the lowest rates of adult obesity, seven are in Colorado, and the three others are in Wyoming, Utah, and New Mexico.
A quick note about this data: PolicyMap has two sources of overweight and obesity data. The Center for Disease Control releases yearly data, but only at the state and MSA level. The USDA Food Environment Atlas’s data is less current but available at the county level. Under the health tab, in the “Overweight & Obese” submenu, you can see that the data is separated between “By County” and “By State”. The “By County” data is from the USDA, and the “By State” data is from the CDC.
| County, State | Adult obesity rate as of 2007 | |
|---|---|---|
| Greene, AL | 43.5% | |
| Holmes, MS | 42.3% | |
| Humphreys, MS | 41.6% | |
| Jefferson, MS | 41.6% | |
| Dallas, TX | 41.2% | |
| Tunica, MS | 41.1% | |
| Claiborne, MS | 40.8% | |
| Lowndes, AL | 40.3% | |
| Macon, AL | 40.2% | |
| Perry, AL | 40.2% |
| County, State | Adult obesity rate as of 2007 | |
|---|---|---|
| San Miguel, CO | 14.9% | |
| La Plata, CO | 14.2% | |
| Pitkin, CO | 13.5% | |
| Teton, WY | 13.4% | |
| Eagle, CO | 13% | |
| Routt, CO | 13% | |
| Summit, UT | 12.9% | |
| Santa Fe, NM | 12.7% | |
| Summit, CO | 12.7% | |
| Bolder, CO | 12.5% |
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