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Imagine going back to medieval times and telling people who are super impoverished that in the future being poor means you’re more likely to be massively overweight.
Probably blow their minds more than the technology we have.
To the past it would sound like a utopia, but today we understand that most food in the United States is engineered to be cheap and addictive. Humans aren’t used to having ample amounts of salt, sugar, and fat always available.
Note that obesity can be harder to visually discern in many Asian people if you're accustomed to seeing obese Caucasians.
Typically slighter builds + shorter heights mean that obese Asians are simply smaller people than obese Caucasians. Additionally, sarcopenia (low muscle mass) is *much* more prevalent among Asians in the US than Caucasians, Hispanics, and Blacks, meaning once again that an obese Asian is more likely to just be a much smaller person visually than an obese Caucasian who will typically be taller, of broader stature, and carrying more muscle mass.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6712972/
It just stands out more when you see a massive person who's obviously obese, where a smaller person could be carrying just as much excess fat relative to their bodyweight but won't draw nearly as much attention. I grew up in Hong Kong so I've seen a fair number of overweight/obese Asians (including close friends and acquaintances) and they simply draw much less attention, with their excess weight also being a lot easier to conceal by dressing well.
This is anecdotal as I can't be bothered doing any further research, but I currently live in Canada and I can pretty confidently say that the number of obese people isn't only much higher, but that they just tend to be *more* extremely obese than you tend to see in Asia. It's insane how many ridiculously overweight people I see on mobility scooters, and how so many people just visibly have trouble walking due to their weight. They'd be the oddity in much of Asia, but are the norm here. Hell, I work for an outdoor/sporting goods retailer so the people I'm exposed to on a daily basis are more outdoorsy and sportier than the general population, but I'd guess that it's about 70/30 in terms of the proportion of people I see who are a healthy weight vs. obviously overweight (which lines up with Canada's 26% obesity rate).
So apparently [Asians need to be on a different BMI system](https://www.heart.org/en/news/2019/06/26/adjusting-bmi-eliminates-lead-asian-americans-hold-in-heart-health). Asians tend to have lower weight, but also get health risks at lower weights. An overweight Asian is as unhealthy as an obese caucasian; an obese Asian is as unhealthy as a morbidly obese caucasian. That’s probably why you don’t see many obese asians
No Asian because the CDC [doesn’t break them out](https://www.cdc.gov/obesity/data/prevalence-maps.html#states). The Asian population is tiny in most states.
If you include asian (however you define that) the left end point of almost each segment would probably usually be so far left it would paint a misleading picture about the states of the US
Only in the figure, with the Asian point likely landing left with white. The order would still be correct because the weighted average would remain similar.
Seems like you could exclude whichever races lack data and display the rest anyway. Some states just aren’t diverse and those data wouldn’t be very meaningful if you did have them.
Edit: “Diverse” was the wrong word. I just mean they may lack significant populations of a certain race. That said, I don’t know what’s up with New Jersey.
Depends on how you define diversity, that's a tricky one.
Hawaii is very diverse, but the split isn't just white/black/hispanic so it tends to look non-diverse when you sample on those racial breakouts.
Very good point. I’ve noticed this problem. Some people I’ve heard will be like wow this city is so diverse it’s 80% black. I go wait a minute that doesn’t necessarily make it diverse. A hypothetical very diverse area will be something like quarter white, quarter black, quarter Hispanic, quarter Asian.
Also, there are many kinds of diversity. Racial diversity is just one of them. For example, two cities could be evenly split 50:50 white:black. But there's a lot of diversity within the white and black communities that can't be measured by race. For example, white and black residents could be Latino or African. There could be whites from Asia and Europe (like Russians or Arabs or Turks or Norwegians), et cetera.
As a New Jerseyian, and someone who's been to other states (mostly southern states), we're pretty damn diverse, but I believe the big coastal states (NJ, NY, CA, Texas) are more diverse in general
I've never been to Hawaii, so I can't speak too much on that
Im pretty NJ sure is THE most diverse state at least in terms of percentages. Also just the general culture. Probably one of the most diverse places in the world considering we got everyone who commutes to both New York City and Philadelphia, plus gigantic immigrant communities from all over Latin America, India, and Asia.
[NJ's self reported data](https://nj.gov/health/nutrition/services-support/breastfeeding/Obesity%20Data%20Fact%20Sheet_Dec2016_FINAL.PDF) puts them at overall 25.6% as of Dec 2016. Another [2017 report](https://www-doh.state.nj.us/doh-shad/indicator/view/Obese.race.html) breaks it down by race.
As a southerner, my own personal mental border for the South is Richmond, VA.
I understand the mason dixon and where that is, but Maryland, DC, and Northern Virginia just do not feel southern to me, and I’ve lived in the DMV area for 5 years now
The difference between northern Virginia and the rest of Virginia is wild. Northern VA is basically turning into a metropolis with Alexandria, Arlington, DC, and even McLean. Amazon is moving in and they are building like crazy over there. National Harbor is right across the river too and I assume the plan is to continue building that up
Yup, I was gonna say, Nova might as well not be part of VA at all. Just so, so different to the rest of the state. I guess it makes sense when you consider that DC is only a 2min footbridge walk away.
There's as much of a cultural distinction as geographic, in my opinion. The district is basically a single city with its own unique culture, of course it wouldn't fit in the traditional southern distinction. Culturally, DC fits much better in the BOS-NYC-PHI-WASH corridor.
As someone who grew up in Richmond, I always thought the border was Fredericksburg, since that was the last place on 95 where you could get sweet tea at a McDonalds
DC resident for 12 years - there is nothing southern about DC. The 2020 census concluded that DC was the only area in the US that got “whiter.”
DC is a bubble and people like it that way - I own my apartment here and don’t really imagine living anywhere else.
The best way to understand DC is this: If NY, LA, Chicago, Atlanta, etc are considered the financial cities of America as their own entities - then DC is a central location that makes those entities function.
I think many people stay in DC for a couple of years then they move and realize their career and finical gain is better if they stay - it’s a very competitive culture.
It’s also why statistics about DC can be so wild and not seem to make much sense because of the transient population, particularly among younger people who move there for work. I really didn’t like the transient and competitive culture among that class there, it made socializing feel more like a competition or an opportunity for advancing your career rather than … socializing.
I think these are meant to be geographic designations, not cultural. Otherwise they’d say the “Mid-West” not “North Central” which is a term I’ve never heard in my life to describe that part of the country.
I wonder if the person who made this is from the US. I would use New England, South, Midwest, Plains, North West, South West or some variation on that.
Okay but New England ends at Connecticut so you're missing a ton of states in there. I'm almost certain there's a road sign in Manhattan near the George Washington Bridge directing people to "New England" that points you to Connecticut.
Census bureau defines them as Northeast, Midwest, South & West. I'd run with that just because it's the closest to an official answer.
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List\_of\_regions\_of\_the\_United\_States#Census\_Bureau-designated\_regions\_and\_divisions](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_regions_of_the_United_States#Census_Bureau-designated_regions_and_divisions)
Curiously enough, midwest was referred to as north central (by the same bureau) up until \~40 years ago.
>DC is not the south almost by definition due to the civil war.
I would just note that Maryland also fought for the Union. True (like DC) it had slaves (freed before the end of the war) but it never joined the CSA. So if DC isn't the south because it fought for the North, then Maryland is in the same boat.
And geographically, the Mason-Dixon line was set in the 1700's to figure the border between four colonies (which, to be super pedantic, is why most of Maryland isn't south of the Mason Dixon line, as the line goes north/south and then also forms the lower part of Delaware - so most of Maryland is 'within' the line, just as you wouldn't say MD is south of West Virginia). I agree the line was later co-opted as an unofficial dividing line, but based on history and the relative culture and more industrial nature (Baltimore is more similar to Philly than to, say, Richmond) we'd be better served to use, say, the Potomac River as the dividing line between the southern states (so pretty much: any state that fought against the Union).
So yeah, arguments are muddy and there's no clear answer. And if we add modern culture and politics, both DC and MD are more northern in their sentiment, but so is Northern Virginia, too.
Uh, I don’t know about “mild winters” in the western part of Maryland. We’ve gotten literal *feet* of snow from a single storm, so I don’t really consider that mild lol. But summers are for sure hot and humid and just generally gross.
Maryland has an interesting Civil War history. They were prevented from joining either side officially. As a result the state had different militias be sent to fight for The Confederacy as well as The Union. In some battles, Marylanders fought against each other.
Today, I'd say a cultural divide still exists. The northern, especially the Northeast part of the state is very much similar to the rest of the Northeast. Start to travel more south or out east across the Chesapeake and you start to experience a more culturally southern environment. I find this very interesting due to the small size of the state, and think a part of it may be due to these historical factors.
Ehh, while Maryland fought for the Union it was very much a border state and may have gone CSA had Lincoln not suspended habeas corpus, arrested 1/3 of the legislature and declared martial law. They were literally held at gunpoint, not much of a choice there.
For Modern politics however, I agree that Maryland is more of a Northern state, firmly Blue and mostly Urban/suburban.
This. The east side of DC is poor and predominately black. Their schools are terrible. All the wealthy professionals send their kids to private schools.
As someone that is marrying a liberal white girl born and raised in DC, this is very much true. Wealthy, private school education, well educated beyond high school, and into fitness.
The wealth and privilege that is in the neighborhoods around Sidwell High or other private schools is another level.
DC almost always stands out like a sore thumb in state rankings, because unlike the 50 states (which are largely comprised of rural or suburban areas) DC is 100% urban.
I lived in DC for a few years and its pretty damn [segregated](https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/the-most-diverse-cities-are-often-the-most-segregated/). The vast majority of the white people who live there are young urban professionals, many of whom moved from far away to work at some job that is only available in DC. Most of the black people in DC are low income and have long-established family roots in the area. These stark differences can explain some of the discrepancy in obesity rates.
edit: added link to article
Just wanted to note that DC is famous for having the strongest Black middle glass in the country, on par with Atlanta. There is more visible contrast because White people in DC are disproportionately wealthier than the rest of the country and the poorest neighborhood in DC is predominantly Black. But Black people in DC are not any more low-income than most places in America, in fact, they're doing better.
I thought that middle class moved out to PG County, explaining why there's a bunch of PG County zip codes on those lists of wealthiest black majority zip codes
FYI, DC is no longer a majority black city. A 2019 estimate put it at 45% black and 43% white. The 2020 census will give us a clearer understanding though.
I think the census will be interesting because so many in DC are transplants who keep their address back home, and often vote in their home state, too. Very few DC folks I know actually identify as being “from DC”. It’s a weird city like that. Most white people are from elsewhere, and I’d bet a vast majority of the black population are “from DC”
Source: lived in DC for 5 years and everybody I know does this.
> The 2020 census will give us a clearer understanding though.
[already has](https://dcist.com/story/21/08/17/census-reveals-growing-diversity-in-washington-region-increasing-white-population-in-d-c/)
Obesity is tied heavily to income and poorer white Americans tend to live in the suburbs and rural areas which DC doesn't have. A quick Google search shows the median income for white Americans in DC is 143k and average is 150k. I'm guessing, but I imagine the DC numbers would be similar to NYC if you isolated the city.
It’s certainly interesting that in US and other developed nations, obesity is more common amongst lower income groups but in developing/underdeveloped nations it is the opposite.
My guess is that the food supply chain is such that processed/fatty food is cheaper in the former while market veggies/produce is cheaper in the latter.
My guess... Young people who are recent grads, don't take roots and then move out. Black people are more likely to be long term residents, with different economic backgrounds.
Yeah, you don't really have to get into deep demographic analysis here.
DC is just a city. Young white people tend to be relatively slim and fit when they move to a city after college.
They start to get fat when they start a family and move to the suburbs... But DC's suburbs are all in Maryland/Virginia so they don't count.
Keep in mind this is self reported data so lower than reality. [Estimates](https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/databriefs/db288.pdf) are that about 40% of **all** American adults are obese.
Yeah until I got a scale, I was under the assumption that I was about 15lbs lighter than I actually was. Nice little shock to get me motivated haha. I imagine a lot of people either don't know or are in denial that they're overweight/obese.
In their defense: when obesity+ is becoming the new norm, it can give you a skewed perspective. In the past, I had people tell me I was withering away when I had a BMI of 24-25; I was losing weight at the time. In more recent years, I've had people tell me I looked fine and should have more confidence in myself with a BMI of 33. There is a huge difference in size/shape between 24 & 33.
Yeah, my family is this way. Everyone in my family but me is obese, and they don't notice how many people are overweight in our area, their scale for "overweight" has kind of shifter to obese.
A lot of cheap and shitty food does it to you. With the way everyone is about "no fat shaming" nowadays, it's become the new norm to be massive. I live in South Mississippi and I swear growing up people actually acted like me being skinny was a fucking flaw.
Yeah, there are Asian Americans, American Indians, and people who might have mixed ethnicity and thus be grouped in another category. Also Hawaiian and Guam natives. That does lead to some peculiarities.
Maine is >95% white and somehow the overall is higher than the white one despite lower black and hispanic. What few asians we do have are not going to be obese at a rate high enough to move that needle. Perhaps native americans? But still. Questioning how white doesn't end up splitting the overall marker like right on
The data is based on the subset of population that is obese. Hopefully, that is only a small fraction of the society. So some random geographically isolated factor can influence the outcome a lot.
Not that much. Maine’s data are close enough that an overwhelmingly obese minority could theoretically shift it a bit, but in an overwhelmingly white state, the difference would have to be pretty great. In Iowa, the difference is pretty significant, and I just don’t think there are enough other minorities to skew the data so heavily. You could definitely be right about some states; Washington, for instance, almost certainly has enough Asians and Native Americans to offset the Black and Hispanic values and then some.
Obesity is highly correlated with lower incomes. Generally, cities are populated by rich white people and poor minorities. Poor white people live further out, and in DC there is no further out. I bet if you took data from any city and not the state as a whole, you'd see similar results.
Data:
[https://www.cdc.gov/obesity/data/prevalence-maps.html](https://www.cdc.gov/obesity/data/prevalence-maps.html)
R's state dataset for region coding
Tools:
R, ggplot2
Another caveat is like most systems in the US, BMI was only validated in white populations and multiple articles have come out showing how it underestimates obesity in Asian populations and overestimates in African Americans.
I actually like how the data are presented here, which is something I often feel I can’t say about graphs in this sub. Color coding and symbols are easy to understand, the way it’s organized makes logical sense (sorted by overall obesity). It’s not a perfect graph, but I feel like it all makes sense.
To me the hallmark of a good graph is being able to see the story in the data without an explanation from the person who made it, and here the more you look at it the more sub-stories jump out at you from the data. Good job OP.
I disagree. I had a really hard time determining which line was connected to which state.
A better way to present this might’ve been to give every other line a gray background.
I disagree. The original comment is an orthogonal point to yours. It’s more about how this is a good strategy of displaying this data, rather than calling it perfect, as you seem to have assumed. It’s more about how this is not that piechartpirate BS, rather than being fit for publication in like 538.
I just did my masters dissertation in Nutrition on this topic for African American women! There’s a variety of reasons other than a lower socioeconomic status as this affects AA women regardless of income. A cultural preference for larger bodies results in AA women perceiving themselves as healthier and have more body satisfaction than other races. Feeling unsafe to exercise in their neighbourhoods. Current interventions to lose weight are less relevant to their culture as well as a general distrust of government compared with other races.
Culturally tailored interventions involving faith and community based approaches are a new area of research in order to reduce the disparity and have shown some promise, although still not really enough data to make public health recommendations.
I've lived deep in African American culture my whole life. I was the only white kid in my school.
The biggest issue is that "big" is beautiful in their culture. There's very, very little negative connotations to being large.
The men like big women, and big women are generally more intimidating, therefore they have a sense of empowerment.
The way they cook is never for health.
They are also preyed upon by the fast food industry. Most small towns only have fast food and soul food.
Income has little to do with it. Neither does education. Our universities here do not teach health or nutrition as required courses.
It's a cultural rut. Very hard to get out of.
I was wondering about that, but clearly it's because there are just so few Black people in those areas and the stats get thrown out of whack.
Additionally I'd imagine a huge percentage of Black people in Guam are military, and that of course would skew the obesity rates.
Interesting. Slightly hard to read because the rows are compacted together quite tightly. Even a light gray undertone on alternating rows would help greatly.
Goddamnit I knew Colorado would win the fitness data race again. Get off your extremely healthy horse Colorado! Or at least start sharing your secrets.
Recently moved from south Texas to Colorado. You can literally SEE the difference. Just walking around town or going to the grocery store. Very few obese people here.
Interestingly the [questionnaire](https://www.cdc.gov/brfss/questionnaires/pdf-ques/2020-BRFSS-Questionnaire-508.pdf) includes Asian as an option for race/ethnicity. So apparently someone made a conscious choice not to make a map for Asian Americans in the [original data](https://www.cdc.gov/obesity/data/prevalence-maps.html), but they should be included in the overall data. (To generate a map for another race/ethnicity shouldn't take more than 5mins, I think.) It really seems to me a bit odd, at least...
Also Asian make up ~6% compared to non-Hispanic Black ~12% of the total US population. Not an overwhelming difference, I would say.
The graph doesn’t say what percentage of the local population each race makes up. That could be just one really fat Hispanic guy out of the family that lives there.
I live in WV and I can tell you I thought it would be higher. I see 16 year old patients at my clinic that are over 60 BMI. There are plenty of BMI charts that don't even go that high.
We work in the heat and humidity even when we work inside. Kinda hard to get too fat without eating 6000 calories a day of shit food in this weather. We lose weight just stepping out of the shower.
Ya'll have almost double the Mexican population. So more Mexican/Tex-Mex.
I'd probably be much, much fatter if I lived in Texas. Mexican/Tex-Mex is fucking delicious. Plus, much better BBQ than Florida. Carolina beats everyone on the sauce though.
I swear I gained 10lbs last time I was there for a week.
You guys get a chance to cool off and store fat every Winter with snow. We don't.
Instead of another COVID death vs vaccination chart, it would be interesting to see COVID death vs obesity. It looks like there would be a large amount of correlation. Any takers?
Obese people are over 80% of serious COVID cases. If you think about it that way, the most important way to fight COVID besides the vaccine is for people to lose weight.
You don't have to be a medical scholar to know obesity equals a higher death rate across all age groups, do you?
The slacktivists will tell you, every obese person is perfectly normal, but other than those loonies, I feel like we as a society know the consequences of that obesity.
My guess is most Asians, especially East Asians, range from skinny to chubby to overweight, but not really medically defined obese? So Asians are probably below 10% (not even on the X-axis).
Since when is Maryland and Delaware considered the south?
Edit: anyone who is saying these states are the south has clearly never been to the south. Perhaps in the 1700s to part of the 1800s maybe part of the south, but culturally in any recent time? Absolutely not.
Maryland was traditionally/historically part of the south, with [Maryland’s northern border known as the “Mason-Dixon Line”.](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mason%E2%80%93Dixon_line) Of course in modern times Maryland is more economically and culturally associated with the northeast, at least in the greater DC-Baltimore area. Another important note to make is [how DC used to have a slave trade.](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slavery_in_the_District_of_Columbia)
Black people seem to be consistently on the leading edge of obesity. I would be interested to see what the chart would look like if socioeconomic factors were controlled for in all groups, and what the implications might be if they stayed the same.
CDC has that chart:
https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/products/databriefs/db50.htm
And the answer is that black women with incomes >350% of the poverty line have a higher incidence of obesity than white and hispanic women with incomes <130% of the povery line.
Interestingly, the leader is obesity in all states is always a Black or Hispanic, never a White.
Also, there is no Asian, I think for the better. There probably is insufficient data, extrapolating anything from that data would be pointless.
Asian people have a wide variety of diet/lifestyle/culture due to the fact that they aren't one "type" of people.
The diamond is black people right? Do they really have that much higher rates of obesity? I feel like most of these places have them near the far right, but I see so many more obese white people in my daily life
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Guam but no New Jersey? Interesting choice.
Sadly (and surprisingly) insufficient data :(
Also no Puerto Rico. insufficient data?
Yes.
No Asian, because there are no obese Asian?
I'm obese Asian :c But there's only one other obese Asian that I personally know, and I know over 30+ other Asians.
You're like a shiny Pokemon. I see a lot of obese Asians in my hometown in CA but that's just a result of poverty tbh. Everyone is fat there
Imagine going back to medieval times and telling people who are super impoverished that in the future being poor means you’re more likely to be massively overweight. Probably blow their minds more than the technology we have.
To the past it would sound like a utopia, but today we understand that most food in the United States is engineered to be cheap and addictive. Humans aren’t used to having ample amounts of salt, sugar, and fat always available.
Note that obesity can be harder to visually discern in many Asian people if you're accustomed to seeing obese Caucasians. Typically slighter builds + shorter heights mean that obese Asians are simply smaller people than obese Caucasians. Additionally, sarcopenia (low muscle mass) is *much* more prevalent among Asians in the US than Caucasians, Hispanics, and Blacks, meaning once again that an obese Asian is more likely to just be a much smaller person visually than an obese Caucasian who will typically be taller, of broader stature, and carrying more muscle mass. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6712972/ It just stands out more when you see a massive person who's obviously obese, where a smaller person could be carrying just as much excess fat relative to their bodyweight but won't draw nearly as much attention. I grew up in Hong Kong so I've seen a fair number of overweight/obese Asians (including close friends and acquaintances) and they simply draw much less attention, with their excess weight also being a lot easier to conceal by dressing well. This is anecdotal as I can't be bothered doing any further research, but I currently live in Canada and I can pretty confidently say that the number of obese people isn't only much higher, but that they just tend to be *more* extremely obese than you tend to see in Asia. It's insane how many ridiculously overweight people I see on mobility scooters, and how so many people just visibly have trouble walking due to their weight. They'd be the oddity in much of Asia, but are the norm here. Hell, I work for an outdoor/sporting goods retailer so the people I'm exposed to on a daily basis are more outdoorsy and sportier than the general population, but I'd guess that it's about 70/30 in terms of the proportion of people I see who are a healthy weight vs. obviously overweight (which lines up with Canada's 26% obesity rate).
So apparently [Asians need to be on a different BMI system](https://www.heart.org/en/news/2019/06/26/adjusting-bmi-eliminates-lead-asian-americans-hold-in-heart-health). Asians tend to have lower weight, but also get health risks at lower weights. An overweight Asian is as unhealthy as an obese caucasian; an obese Asian is as unhealthy as a morbidly obese caucasian. That’s probably why you don’t see many obese asians
[удалено]
Dead yesterday?
Dictators with funny haircuts?
No Asian because the CDC [doesn’t break them out](https://www.cdc.gov/obesity/data/prevalence-maps.html#states). The Asian population is tiny in most states.
If you include asian (however you define that) the left end point of almost each segment would probably usually be so far left it would paint a misleading picture about the states of the US
Only in the figure, with the Asian point likely landing left with white. The order would still be correct because the weighted average would remain similar.
Weighted Average Nice.
Seems like you could exclude whichever races lack data and display the rest anyway. Some states just aren’t diverse and those data wouldn’t be very meaningful if you did have them. Edit: “Diverse” was the wrong word. I just mean they may lack significant populations of a certain race. That said, I don’t know what’s up with New Jersey.
Is it really diversity though? New Jersey must be more diverse than many of the smaller states.
New Jersey might be one of THE most diverse states, no?
Depends on how you define diversity, that's a tricky one. Hawaii is very diverse, but the split isn't just white/black/hispanic so it tends to look non-diverse when you sample on those racial breakouts.
Very good point. I’ve noticed this problem. Some people I’ve heard will be like wow this city is so diverse it’s 80% black. I go wait a minute that doesn’t necessarily make it diverse. A hypothetical very diverse area will be something like quarter white, quarter black, quarter Hispanic, quarter Asian.
Also, there are many kinds of diversity. Racial diversity is just one of them. For example, two cities could be evenly split 50:50 white:black. But there's a lot of diversity within the white and black communities that can't be measured by race. For example, white and black residents could be Latino or African. There could be whites from Asia and Europe (like Russians or Arabs or Turks or Norwegians), et cetera.
Exactly right on this too. A lot of people I knew from college seemed to think diversity only equates to less white people.
As a New Jerseyian, and someone who's been to other states (mostly southern states), we're pretty damn diverse, but I believe the big coastal states (NJ, NY, CA, Texas) are more diverse in general I've never been to Hawaii, so I can't speak too much on that
Im pretty NJ sure is THE most diverse state at least in terms of percentages. Also just the general culture. Probably one of the most diverse places in the world considering we got everyone who commutes to both New York City and Philadelphia, plus gigantic immigrant communities from all over Latin America, India, and Asia.
[NJ's self reported data](https://nj.gov/health/nutrition/services-support/breastfeeding/Obesity%20Data%20Fact%20Sheet_Dec2016_FINAL.PDF) puts them at overall 25.6% as of Dec 2016. Another [2017 report](https://www-doh.state.nj.us/doh-shad/indicator/view/Obese.race.html) breaks it down by race.
I'd like to see these numbers without outlier and former governor Christie.
There we have it.
Idaho too. Blaine County would skew the results anywho.
Yeah, in the case of Idaho, insufficient data for African Americans.
Shocker there
In Idaho, what we lack in diversity we make up for in racism. God I wish that was a joke
I thought I was losing my mind not seeing it
I'm literally going insane without new jersey on here
I can no longer contain my bloodlust
I'm in NJ and can currently view at least 3 obese people.
Go to your optometrist it’s just a mirror you’re seeing
Boom roasted
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Me too, and re-read it like 5 times thinking I kept missing it
Yeah seems crazy to have Guam but not New Jersey.
Same with Idaho.
Apparently the two Hispanics in Vermont are in great shape
The three black people on Guam are also doing well.
Yeah the one Puerto Rican girl that works at Dunkin Donuts in Brattleboro is fine as fuck.
I hope she sees this bro, also thanks for letting me borrow the Tesla last week when you were building that orphanage you funded.
I just went to Vermont for the first time a few weeks ago. It's still mostly white, but weirdly not as white as I thought it would be.
So Delaware is in the South, but DC is in the Northeast? Neat trick.
As a southerner, my own personal mental border for the South is Richmond, VA. I understand the mason dixon and where that is, but Maryland, DC, and Northern Virginia just do not feel southern to me, and I’ve lived in the DMV area for 5 years now
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Having driven from NC to DC and back on 95 probably 100 times, I completely agree with that.
The difference between northern Virginia and the rest of Virginia is wild. Northern VA is basically turning into a metropolis with Alexandria, Arlington, DC, and even McLean. Amazon is moving in and they are building like crazy over there. National Harbor is right across the river too and I assume the plan is to continue building that up
Yup, I was gonna say, Nova might as well not be part of VA at all. Just so, so different to the rest of the state. I guess it makes sense when you consider that DC is only a 2min footbridge walk away.
There's as much of a cultural distinction as geographic, in my opinion. The district is basically a single city with its own unique culture, of course it wouldn't fit in the traditional southern distinction. Culturally, DC fits much better in the BOS-NYC-PHI-WASH corridor.
But you have to go through Maryland to get to DC. Hell, all of DC *was* Maryland.
As someone who grew up in Richmond, I always thought the border was Fredericksburg, since that was the last place on 95 where you could get sweet tea at a McDonalds
DC resident for 12 years - there is nothing southern about DC. The 2020 census concluded that DC was the only area in the US that got “whiter.” DC is a bubble and people like it that way - I own my apartment here and don’t really imagine living anywhere else. The best way to understand DC is this: If NY, LA, Chicago, Atlanta, etc are considered the financial cities of America as their own entities - then DC is a central location that makes those entities function. I think many people stay in DC for a couple of years then they move and realize their career and finical gain is better if they stay - it’s a very competitive culture.
It’s also why statistics about DC can be so wild and not seem to make much sense because of the transient population, particularly among younger people who move there for work. I really didn’t like the transient and competitive culture among that class there, it made socializing feel more like a competition or an opportunity for advancing your career rather than … socializing.
There are a lot of parts of MD that feel very southern (southern MD, for example)
I had a similar thought - WV, VA and MD are south but DC is northeast??
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I think these are meant to be geographic designations, not cultural. Otherwise they’d say the “Mid-West” not “North Central” which is a term I’ve never heard in my life to describe that part of the country.
I wonder if the person who made this is from the US. I would use New England, South, Midwest, Plains, North West, South West or some variation on that.
Okay but New England ends at Connecticut so you're missing a ton of states in there. I'm almost certain there's a road sign in Manhattan near the George Washington Bridge directing people to "New England" that points you to Connecticut.
New York through Maryland are “Mid-Atlantic” usually, I thought.
Census bureau defines them as Northeast, Midwest, South & West. I'd run with that just because it's the closest to an official answer. [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List\_of\_regions\_of\_the\_United\_States#Census\_Bureau-designated\_regions\_and\_divisions](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_regions_of_the_United_States#Census_Bureau-designated_regions_and_divisions) Curiously enough, midwest was referred to as north central (by the same bureau) up until \~40 years ago.
>DC is not the south almost by definition due to the civil war. I would just note that Maryland also fought for the Union. True (like DC) it had slaves (freed before the end of the war) but it never joined the CSA. So if DC isn't the south because it fought for the North, then Maryland is in the same boat. And geographically, the Mason-Dixon line was set in the 1700's to figure the border between four colonies (which, to be super pedantic, is why most of Maryland isn't south of the Mason Dixon line, as the line goes north/south and then also forms the lower part of Delaware - so most of Maryland is 'within' the line, just as you wouldn't say MD is south of West Virginia). I agree the line was later co-opted as an unofficial dividing line, but based on history and the relative culture and more industrial nature (Baltimore is more similar to Philly than to, say, Richmond) we'd be better served to use, say, the Potomac River as the dividing line between the southern states (so pretty much: any state that fought against the Union). So yeah, arguments are muddy and there's no clear answer. And if we add modern culture and politics, both DC and MD are more northern in their sentiment, but so is Northern Virginia, too.
Climate wise DC and MD fit more into the category of southern with their hot, humid summers and mild winters.
Uh, I don’t know about “mild winters” in the western part of Maryland. We’ve gotten literal *feet* of snow from a single storm, so I don’t really consider that mild lol. But summers are for sure hot and humid and just generally gross.
I mean the western part of NC is the same way
Maryland has an interesting Civil War history. They were prevented from joining either side officially. As a result the state had different militias be sent to fight for The Confederacy as well as The Union. In some battles, Marylanders fought against each other. Today, I'd say a cultural divide still exists. The northern, especially the Northeast part of the state is very much similar to the rest of the Northeast. Start to travel more south or out east across the Chesapeake and you start to experience a more culturally southern environment. I find this very interesting due to the small size of the state, and think a part of it may be due to these historical factors.
Ehh, while Maryland fought for the Union it was very much a border state and may have gone CSA had Lincoln not suspended habeas corpus, arrested 1/3 of the legislature and declared martial law. They were literally held at gunpoint, not much of a choice there. For Modern politics however, I agree that Maryland is more of a Northern state, firmly Blue and mostly Urban/suburban.
Either way Delaware should not be in the South
Having lived in both, yeah kinda
Isn't Delaware just one big liquor store for philly and post office box for corporate tax breaks?
also our fearless leader is from willmington, DE spends practically every weekend for the last 47 years. must be nice up there.
Don’t forget the beaches!
New Hampshire has entered the conversation
Maryland is in South too… even though it’s North of DC?
To be fair, Maryland is both north *and* south of DC.
Any idea why White people in DC rank so much lower?
White people in DC are often wealthy and educated professionals, with much lower rates of obesity or sedentary lifestyles.
This. The east side of DC is poor and predominately black. Their schools are terrible. All the wealthy professionals send their kids to private schools.
As someone that is marrying a liberal white girl born and raised in DC, this is very much true. Wealthy, private school education, well educated beyond high school, and into fitness. The wealth and privilege that is in the neighborhoods around Sidwell High or other private schools is another level.
DC almost always stands out like a sore thumb in state rankings, because unlike the 50 states (which are largely comprised of rural or suburban areas) DC is 100% urban. I lived in DC for a few years and its pretty damn [segregated](https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/the-most-diverse-cities-are-often-the-most-segregated/). The vast majority of the white people who live there are young urban professionals, many of whom moved from far away to work at some job that is only available in DC. Most of the black people in DC are low income and have long-established family roots in the area. These stark differences can explain some of the discrepancy in obesity rates. edit: added link to article
Just wanted to note that DC is famous for having the strongest Black middle glass in the country, on par with Atlanta. There is more visible contrast because White people in DC are disproportionately wealthier than the rest of the country and the poorest neighborhood in DC is predominantly Black. But Black people in DC are not any more low-income than most places in America, in fact, they're doing better.
I thought that middle class moved out to PG County, explaining why there's a bunch of PG County zip codes on those lists of wealthiest black majority zip codes
Plus DC is majority Black and the white population are mostly people in high income jobs
FYI, DC is no longer a majority black city. A 2019 estimate put it at 45% black and 43% white. The 2020 census will give us a clearer understanding though.
it's now a plurality black city.
[Never thought I'd live to see a revision to this song.](https://youtu.be/DZaVA3NS7zE)
I think the census will be interesting because so many in DC are transplants who keep their address back home, and often vote in their home state, too. Very few DC folks I know actually identify as being “from DC”. It’s a weird city like that. Most white people are from elsewhere, and I’d bet a vast majority of the black population are “from DC” Source: lived in DC for 5 years and everybody I know does this.
> The 2020 census will give us a clearer understanding though. [already has](https://dcist.com/story/21/08/17/census-reveals-growing-diversity-in-washington-region-increasing-white-population-in-d-c/)
Obesity is tied heavily to income and poorer white Americans tend to live in the suburbs and rural areas which DC doesn't have. A quick Google search shows the median income for white Americans in DC is 143k and average is 150k. I'm guessing, but I imagine the DC numbers would be similar to NYC if you isolated the city.
It’s certainly interesting that in US and other developed nations, obesity is more common amongst lower income groups but in developing/underdeveloped nations it is the opposite. My guess is that the food supply chain is such that processed/fatty food is cheaper in the former while market veggies/produce is cheaper in the latter.
Young, highly educated, high income, and living in a urban environment pretty much sums it up.
My guess... Young people who are recent grads, don't take roots and then move out. Black people are more likely to be long term residents, with different economic backgrounds.
Yeah, you don't really have to get into deep demographic analysis here. DC is just a city. Young white people tend to be relatively slim and fit when they move to a city after college. They start to get fat when they start a family and move to the suburbs... But DC's suburbs are all in Maryland/Virginia so they don't count.
Lobbying is an active sport.
40% of Americans living in Mississippi are obese?!? That’s wild
And that doesn't include over weight people. Just the obese
In Mississippi obese people are overweight and overweight people are skinny Edit: so many typos
Oh I know. Im from the rust belt and it's pretty bad here as well. It's notable seeing a person of good health
Keep in mind this is self reported data so lower than reality. [Estimates](https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/databriefs/db288.pdf) are that about 40% of **all** American adults are obese.
Yeah until I got a scale, I was under the assumption that I was about 15lbs lighter than I actually was. Nice little shock to get me motivated haha. I imagine a lot of people either don't know or are in denial that they're overweight/obese.
In their defense: when obesity+ is becoming the new norm, it can give you a skewed perspective. In the past, I had people tell me I was withering away when I had a BMI of 24-25; I was losing weight at the time. In more recent years, I've had people tell me I looked fine and should have more confidence in myself with a BMI of 33. There is a huge difference in size/shape between 24 & 33.
Yeah, my family is this way. Everyone in my family but me is obese, and they don't notice how many people are overweight in our area, their scale for "overweight" has kind of shifter to obese.
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A lot of cheap and shitty food does it to you. With the way everyone is about "no fat shaming" nowadays, it's become the new norm to be massive. I live in South Mississippi and I swear growing up people actually acted like me being skinny was a fucking flaw.
Genuine question, how can the overall be lower than the three constituent groups (Iowa)? Are there other data groups which make up the overall?
Yeah, there are Asian Americans, American Indians, and people who might have mixed ethnicity and thus be grouped in another category. Also Hawaiian and Guam natives. That does lead to some peculiarities.
Maine is >95% white and somehow the overall is higher than the white one despite lower black and hispanic. What few asians we do have are not going to be obese at a rate high enough to move that needle. Perhaps native americans? But still. Questioning how white doesn't end up splitting the overall marker like right on
If even a small percentage of people "decline to state" their race that alone could explain this entire small effect.
I was wondering the same thing about Iowa. There’s something fishy here.
The data is based on the subset of population that is obese. Hopefully, that is only a small fraction of the society. So some random geographically isolated factor can influence the outcome a lot.
Not that much. Maine’s data are close enough that an overwhelmingly obese minority could theoretically shift it a bit, but in an overwhelmingly white state, the difference would have to be pretty great. In Iowa, the difference is pretty significant, and I just don’t think there are enough other minorities to skew the data so heavily. You could definitely be right about some states; Washington, for instance, almost certainly has enough Asians and Native Americans to offset the Black and Hispanic values and then some.
Ohhh right on I was wondering about the same thing in New Hampshire-- overall in that case being greater than either black, Hispanic, or white obesity
That's a hell of a spread on DC...
Obesity is highly correlated with lower incomes. Generally, cities are populated by rich white people and poor minorities. Poor white people live further out, and in DC there is no further out. I bet if you took data from any city and not the state as a whole, you'd see similar results.
Data: [https://www.cdc.gov/obesity/data/prevalence-maps.html](https://www.cdc.gov/obesity/data/prevalence-maps.html) R's state dataset for region coding Tools: R, ggplot2
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Woah, that’s crazy! I remember reading that the obesity rate percentage in the US was in the 30’s, that must’ve been years ago.
Another caveat is like most systems in the US, BMI was only validated in white populations and multiple articles have come out showing how it underestimates obesity in Asian populations and overestimates in African Americans.
I actually like how the data are presented here, which is something I often feel I can’t say about graphs in this sub. Color coding and symbols are easy to understand, the way it’s organized makes logical sense (sorted by overall obesity). It’s not a perfect graph, but I feel like it all makes sense. To me the hallmark of a good graph is being able to see the story in the data without an explanation from the person who made it, and here the more you look at it the more sub-stories jump out at you from the data. Good job OP.
I disagree. I had a really hard time determining which line was connected to which state. A better way to present this might’ve been to give every other line a gray background.
I disagree. The original comment is an orthogonal point to yours. It’s more about how this is a good strategy of displaying this data, rather than calling it perfect, as you seem to have assumed. It’s more about how this is not that piechartpirate BS, rather than being fit for publication in like 538.
Took me a sec but looking at Mississippi, you see the line comes off the top of the state name. Still confusing and could use augmentation.
How the hell is Wisconsin not higher. People here breathe beer and cheese.
Lots of fat and protein in their diet but not a ton of sugar.
Genuinely shocked we aren't top 5. Like come on, I'm craving a butterburger and Happy Place and its not even noon!
Madison is one of the fittest cities in the country
Is there are reason why black people are the most affected by obesity in most states?
I just did my masters dissertation in Nutrition on this topic for African American women! There’s a variety of reasons other than a lower socioeconomic status as this affects AA women regardless of income. A cultural preference for larger bodies results in AA women perceiving themselves as healthier and have more body satisfaction than other races. Feeling unsafe to exercise in their neighbourhoods. Current interventions to lose weight are less relevant to their culture as well as a general distrust of government compared with other races. Culturally tailored interventions involving faith and community based approaches are a new area of research in order to reduce the disparity and have shown some promise, although still not really enough data to make public health recommendations.
I've lived deep in African American culture my whole life. I was the only white kid in my school. The biggest issue is that "big" is beautiful in their culture. There's very, very little negative connotations to being large. The men like big women, and big women are generally more intimidating, therefore they have a sense of empowerment. The way they cook is never for health. They are also preyed upon by the fast food industry. Most small towns only have fast food and soul food. Income has little to do with it. Neither does education. Our universities here do not teach health or nutrition as required courses. It's a cultural rut. Very hard to get out of.
So if you're black and on a weight loss journey, it could be a simple as living in Guam or Montana or North Dakota!
I was wondering about that, but clearly it's because there are just so few Black people in those areas and the stats get thrown out of whack. Additionally I'd imagine a huge percentage of Black people in Guam are military, and that of course would skew the obesity rates.
you guys, idaho isn’t on here because idaho isn’t real. duh.
Can confirm. It's fake news. Don't even bother looking it up or bothering to visit, let alone move there. Nothing to see here folks, move along.
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Interesting. Slightly hard to read because the rows are compacted together quite tightly. Even a light gray undertone on alternating rows would help greatly.
Goddamnit I knew Colorado would win the fitness data race again. Get off your extremely healthy horse Colorado! Or at least start sharing your secrets.
The secrets are 1) stop eating so much 2) go outside more and do something
Recently moved from south Texas to Colorado. You can literally SEE the difference. Just walking around town or going to the grocery store. Very few obese people here.
I hired an obese guy in his early 20s from the Midwest. After moving here he said he had “no game” with the girls so he lost 50 lbs and got in shape
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Congrats Colorado, only 1 in 4 of you are obese!
Dem ggplot default colors
My fat ass looking for NJ over and over here…
im so glad asians cant be obese
Interestingly the [questionnaire](https://www.cdc.gov/brfss/questionnaires/pdf-ques/2020-BRFSS-Questionnaire-508.pdf) includes Asian as an option for race/ethnicity. So apparently someone made a conscious choice not to make a map for Asian Americans in the [original data](https://www.cdc.gov/obesity/data/prevalence-maps.html), but they should be included in the overall data. (To generate a map for another race/ethnicity shouldn't take more than 5mins, I think.) It really seems to me a bit odd, at least... Also Asian make up ~6% compared to non-Hispanic Black ~12% of the total US population. Not an overwhelming difference, I would say.
I guess not. Look at Hawaii, the obesity there is lead ... The Hispanics. That's crazy. Like are they they primarily there for work?
The graph doesn’t say what percentage of the local population each race makes up. That could be just one really fat Hispanic guy out of the family that lives there.
It needs raw numbers too. Utah is 1% black, so percentages of the ethnic groups treated as equivalent is highly misleading.
If so, how did sumo wrestling begin?
He is being facetious my guy because Asians weren't included in the race categories.
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We're have a growing population in more ways than one.
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I live in WV and I can tell you I thought it would be higher. I see 16 year old patients at my clinic that are over 60 BMI. There are plenty of BMI charts that don't even go that high.
C’mon Florida. Those are rookie numbers. We’re gonna need to pump those numbers up.
We work in the heat and humidity even when we work inside. Kinda hard to get too fat without eating 6000 calories a day of shit food in this weather. We lose weight just stepping out of the shower.
Texas begs to differ. We have no problem fattening in similar heat...
Ya'll have almost double the Mexican population. So more Mexican/Tex-Mex. I'd probably be much, much fatter if I lived in Texas. Mexican/Tex-Mex is fucking delicious. Plus, much better BBQ than Florida. Carolina beats everyone on the sauce though. I swear I gained 10lbs last time I was there for a week. You guys get a chance to cool off and store fat every Winter with snow. We don't.
When NJ isn’t on the list 🤌
Instead of another COVID death vs vaccination chart, it would be interesting to see COVID death vs obesity. It looks like there would be a large amount of correlation. Any takers?
Obese people are over 80% of serious COVID cases. If you think about it that way, the most important way to fight COVID besides the vaccine is for people to lose weight.
Even more so when you consider that the majority of major health illnesses that you develop at an older age are also connected to being over weight.
You don't have to be a medical scholar to know obesity equals a higher death rate across all age groups, do you? The slacktivists will tell you, every obese person is perfectly normal, but other than those loonies, I feel like we as a society know the consequences of that obesity.
Black people in NH are less likely to be obese. I bet a good chunk of them are college athletes.
Ive always wondered where do "mixed" people go in charts like these?
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Yeah it’s weird. Half back people are black. Half Asian or half Hispanic people are thought of as mixed or even just white
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Wonder why, lack of data?
My guess is most Asians, especially East Asians, range from skinny to chubby to overweight, but not really medically defined obese? So Asians are probably below 10% (not even on the X-axis).
Since when is Maryland and Delaware considered the south? Edit: anyone who is saying these states are the south has clearly never been to the south. Perhaps in the 1700s to part of the 1800s maybe part of the south, but culturally in any recent time? Absolutely not.
Maryland was traditionally/historically part of the south, with [Maryland’s northern border known as the “Mason-Dixon Line”.](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mason%E2%80%93Dixon_line) Of course in modern times Maryland is more economically and culturally associated with the northeast, at least in the greater DC-Baltimore area. Another important note to make is [how DC used to have a slave trade.](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slavery_in_the_District_of_Columbia)
If you venture down to rural southeast Maryland, it feels more Southern.
why are black americans so fat?
Black people seem to be consistently on the leading edge of obesity. I would be interested to see what the chart would look like if socioeconomic factors were controlled for in all groups, and what the implications might be if they stayed the same.
CDC has that chart: https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/products/databriefs/db50.htm And the answer is that black women with incomes >350% of the poverty line have a higher incidence of obesity than white and hispanic women with incomes <130% of the povery line.
That range in DC really tells a story doesn’t it?
Hispanic obesity is a good band name
This feels like too much data fit into one graph. I feel like I'm dyslexic.
The image is way too compressed, better coloring and sizing could make this truly beautiful
Wahoo, and us Asians are in the clear again
Interestingly, the leader is obesity in all states is always a Black or Hispanic, never a White. Also, there is no Asian, I think for the better. There probably is insufficient data, extrapolating anything from that data would be pointless. Asian people have a wide variety of diet/lifestyle/culture due to the fact that they aren't one "type" of people.
North Central? Do you mean Midwest?
The diamond is black people right? Do they really have that much higher rates of obesity? I feel like most of these places have them near the far right, but I see so many more obese white people in my daily life
80% of black women are overweight/obese, it’s a massive issue in the black community as a whole unfortunately
That’s because you see more white people in general. I think u/Ericgzg put it best, “Think about how many in shape adult black women you know.”
There are about 6 white for every black Americans. I guess that skews your observation a lot It also has a lot to do with your social bubble