Adult obesity rates were largely unchanged in 2025, with 21 states at or above 35%, according to Trust for America’s Health’s annual State of Obesity report released Sept. 24. For the first time since 2020, no state was at or above 40%.
California, Mississippi and Nevada did not have 2025 data, so they are not ranked. However, Mississippi’s most recent rate, 40.4% in 2024, was higher than any state’s 2025 rate, according to TFAH’s state fact sheet.
Here are the 10 states with the highest adult obesity rates in 2025:
- Alabama: 39.7%
- North Dakota: 39.1%
- Kentucky: 38.8%
- Oklahoma: 38.1%
- Tennessee: 37.9%
- Indiana: 37.5%
- West Virginia: 37.4%
- Kansas: 37.3%
- Iowa: 36.9%
- Arkansas: 36.7%
And here are the jurisdictions with the 10 lowest adult obesity rates, including the District of Columbia:
- District of Columbia: 24.2%
- Colorado: 25.7%
- Hawaii: 26.4%
- Massachusetts and New Jersey (tie): 27%
- New York: 28.5%
- Vermont: 29.1%
- Utah: 29.8%
- Florida: 30%
- Montana: 30.3%
- Connecticut: 30.4%
The 21-state count is up from 19 in 2024 and down from 23 in 2023. Louisiana and West Virginia had the only statistically significant declines from 2024, with Louisiana dropping from 39.2% to 35.6% and West Virginia from 41.4% to 37.4%. No state had a significant increase. Nationally, 4 in 10 adults have obesity, and just over 21% of children and adolescents ages 2 to 19 do, based on 2021-2023 federal survey data.
TFAH called the stabilization encouraging but warned the country cannot afford to lose momentum, pointing to cuts it says are weakening the programs that help prevent obesity. The report notes that the CDC’s chronic disease center has lost more than 200 staff through reductions in force and that the president’s fiscal 2027 budget would eliminate its Division of Nutrition, Physical Activity and Obesity. TFAH also estimates 5 million people, including about 1.5 million children, have lost access to SNAP.
TFAH also noted that the report lands amid growing use of GLP-1s, along with a renewed emphasis on healthy eating. The Medicare GLP-1 Bridge launched in July with a $50 monthly copay, and about 700,000 new Medicare patients have started treatment since.
