Eurostat, the statistical office of the European Union

E2: Environmental statistics and accounts; sustainable development

e-mail contact : ESTAT-SDG-MONITORING@ec.europa.eu

The indicator is part of the EU Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) indicator set. It is used to monitor progress towards SDG 2 on ending hunger and malnutrition and SDG 3 on good health and well-being; which are embedded in the European Commission’s Priorities under the 'European Green Deal', 'An economy that works for people' and 'Promoting our European way of life'.

SDG 2 - among other things - seeks to end all forms of malnutrition, and ensure access to safe and nutritious food. SDG 3 - among other things - aims to ensure health and well-being for all at all ages. Although the EU has largely overcome problems of hunger, new challenges related to nutrition are emerging, such as rising obesity.

The indicator can be considered as part of the global SDG indicator 2.2.2 "Prevalence of malnutrition (weight for height >+2 or <-2 standard deviation from the median of the WHO Child Growth Standards) among children under 5 years of age, by type (wasting and overweight)".

EU food policy include nutrition initiatives and work with EU Member States in various public health initiatives in the area of nutrition and physical activity to promote a healthy and well-balanced lifestyle. 

The indicator measures the share of obese people based on their body mass index (BMI). BMI is defined as the weight in kilos divided by the square of the height in meters.

People aged 18 years or over are considered obese with a BMI equal or greater than 30. Other categories are: underweight (BMI less than 18.5), normal weight (BMI between 18.5 and less than 25), and pre-obese (BMI between 25 and less than 30). The category overweight (BMI equal or greater than 25) combines the two categories pre-obese and obese.

% of population aged 18 or over, by body mass index (BMI)

Calendar year

The indicator is produced according to the high-level quality standards of European Statistics. Details on accuracy can be found in the metadata of the source datasets (see link to related metadata).

ESS (EHIS & SILC)

Data sources:

European Health Interview Survey (EHIS) for data referring to 2008, 2014 and 2019. EHIS may be implemented as a separate national survey or can be integrated into an existing national survey (i.e. national health interview survey, labour force survey, other household survey). In such a way Member States have the maximum flexibility for implementation. However, across the EU the same data were collected according to a common list of variables.

Statistics on Income and Living Conditions (SILC) for data referring to 2017 and 2022. The BMI question (variable PH110, compulsory) has been included in the test of the 3-year SILC health module 2017. Data from this source are used to bridge the gap between EHIS based data of 2014 and 2019.

Data provider: Statistical Office of the European Union (Eurostat), based on data collected via national surveys.

Every 2 years

The latest data collection based on EHIS was conducted in 2019 (periodicity of 5 years) and the latest data collection based on SILC was conducted in 2022 (periodicity of 3 years). Complete and updated ESS data release information can be accessed via Eurostat release calendar.

T+2 years

The latest release of EHIS based data (reference year 2019) was published in 2021 and disaggregation by additional dimensions (degree of urbanisation, country of birth and country of citizenship) was published in 2022.

The latest release of SILC based data (reference year 2022) was published in 2023.

All EU MS

EHIS data 2014 are presented for all EU Member States plus Iceland, Norway, the United Kingdom and Türkiye.

SILC data 2017 are presented for all EU Member States plus Iceland, Norway, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, North Macedonia and Serbia.

EHIS data 2019 are presented for all EU Member States plus Iceland, Norway, Serbia and Türkiye.

SILC data 2022 are presented for all EU Member States plus Norway, Switzerland, Montenegro and Serbia.

All EU MS

Data are comparable between all EU Member States respectively other presented countries.

5 to 10 years

Presented time series (including EU aggregate) starts in 2014.

3 to 4 data points

Length of comparable time series without methodological breaks is 4 data points.

Analysis of the indicator is presented in Eurostat's annual monitoring report on Sustainable development in the EU (progress towards SDGs in an EU context).

see table  sdg_02_10

Eurostat dedicated section on SDGs: http://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/web/sdi/overview

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