LONDON — Almost a third of the world is overweight, and no country has been able to curb obesity rates in the last three decades, according to a new global analysis.
Researchers found more than 2 billion people are now overweight or obese. The highest rates were in the Middle East and North Africa, where nearly 60 percent of men and 65 percent of women are heavy. The United States has about 13 percent of the world’s overweight people, a greater percentage than any other country. China and India combined have about 15 percent.
‘‘It’s pretty grim,’’ said Christopher Murray of the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation at the University of Washington, who led the study. He and colleagues reviewed more than 1,700 studies covering 188 countries from 1980 to 2013. ‘‘When we realized that not a single country has had a significant decline in obesity, that tells you how hard a challenge this is.’’
Murray said there was a strong link between income and obesity; as people get richer, their waistlines also tend to start bulging. He said rates of cancers linked to weight, like pancreatic, are also rising.