Obesity in New Zealand

Key facts and statistics

This page provides introductory facts and statistics about obesity in New Zealand. For more information, refer to A Portrait of Health: Key Results from the 2006/2007 New Zealand Health Survey.

Obesity statistics for New Zealand adults

The 2006/07 New Zealand Health Survey found that:

One in four adults were obese (26.5%)
41.7% of Māori adults were obese
63.7% of Pacific adults were obese
11% of Asian adults were obese
Pacific men and women were two and a half times more likely to be obese than men and women in the total population.
Māori men and women were one and a half times more likely to be obese than men and women in the total population.
There has been an increase in the prevalence of obesity for men and women from 1997 to 2006/07, adjusted for age, but the rate of increase appears to be slowing.

Obesity statistics for New Zealand children

The 2006/07 New Zealand Health Survey found that:

One in twelve children (aged 2 to 14 years) were obese (8.3%).
One in five children were overweight (20.9%).
There has been no change in the average (mean) BMI for children aged 5-14 years since 2002.
There has been a decrease in average BMI for Māori children.
Adjusted for age, Pacific boys and girls were at least 2.5 times more likely to be obese than boys and girls in the total population.
Māori boys and girls were 1.5 times more likely to be obese than boys and girls in the total population.

Other statistics

Nine out of ten (87.8%) children aged from birth to 14 years have ever been breastfed.
Nine out of ten (87.8%) children aged 2-14 years ate breakfast at home every day in the past 7 days.
Two out of three (63.6%) children had fizzy drink in the past 7 days. One in five (19.6%) children had three or more fizzy drinks in the past seven days.
Seven out of ten (70.9%) children ate fast food in past seven days. One in seven (13.6%) ate fast food twice in past seven days and one in 14 (7.2%) had eaten fast food three or more times in past seven days.
Two out of three (64.1%) children aged 5-14 years usually watched two or more hours of television a day. This equates to 368,700 children.
Two out of every three adults (64.1%) ate the recommended three or more servings of vegetables each day, and two out of three adults (60.0%) ate the recommended two or more servings of fruit a day.
One in seven adults (13.6%) reported that they were currently taking medication for high blood pressure. This equates to 425,500 adults.
One in 12 adults (8.4%) were currently taking medication for high blood cholesterol.
One in 20 adults (5.2%) had been diagnosed with ischaemic heart disease.
The prevalence of diabetes in children was 0.2% which means that approximately 1700 children had been diagnosed with diabetes by a doctor (most probably type 1).
One in 20 adults (5.0%) had doctor-diagnosed diabetes (excluding diabetes during pregnancy). This equates to 157,100 adults. Nine out of every ten adults with diabetes were diagnosed when they were 25 years or older, and almost all will have type 2 diabetes.
After adjusting for age, Pacific men and women had three times the prevalence of diagnosed diabetes than men and women in the total population.
Just under half of children (47.0%) aged 5-14 years usually use active transport to get to and from school (walking, biking, skating or using other forms of physical activity). Common reasons given by parents for what stops their children walking, biking or skating to school – live too far from school, busy traffic/main road, too dangerous for reasons other than traffic, takes too long.
Half of all adults (50.5%) met the definition of being regularly physically active. Overall one in seven (15.0%) adults were sedentary, reporting less than 30 minutes of physical activity in the previous week.