New Zealand Obesity Facts

“Obesity is a time bomb for New Zealand and the Pacific,” Prime Minister Helen Clark said at the opening of the World Health Organisation’s annual regional meeting in Auckland. Clark, a former health minister, said chronic diseases, including those caused by obesity, are plaguing both rich and poor countries across the region.

The World Health Organization has estimated that the cost for obesity is much as 7 percent of the annual health budget, which equates to $303 million in New Zealand.

Research by the World Health Organisation shows that in New Zealand 26 per cent of all boys and 27 per cent of all girls aged over 15 are classified as obese. Obesity in New Zealand adults over 15 years of age has developed a strong upward trend. The prevalence of obesity in 1989 was 11%, in 1997 it was 17% and in 2002 it had increased to 21%.

The 2002/03 New Zealand Health Survey found that in New Zealand certain ethnic groups were over represented in obesity statistics with 27% of Maori men and 27% of Maori women being obese and 36% of Pacific Island men and 47% of Pacific women being obese.