America is the world’s fattest nation.
That’s not hyperbole — the statistics back it up. As of 2017, almost 40 percent of the U.S. population aged 15 and over qualified as obese.
Those extra pounds inflated the cost of obesity-related medical treatment to nearly $316 billion per year and annual productivity losses due to work absenteeism to more than $8.6 billion according to Wallethub.
A new Wallethub survey found that Pennsylvania ranks right in the middle on the list of the fattest states in the nation. Mississippi checked in at No. 1.
Colorado is the nation’s skinniest state, according to the Wallethub, which compared the 50 states in and the District of Columbia across three key dimensions:
- Obesity and overweight prevalance
- Health consequences
- Food and fitness
Wallethub then evaluated those dimensions using 25 relevant metrics, each weighted differently and graded on a 100-point scale, with a score of 100 representing the fattest state.
Read the full methodology here.
Here’s the list of the 50 fattest states:
- Mississippi
- West Virginia
- Arkansas
- Kentucky
- Tennessee
- Louisiana
- Alabama
- South Carolina
- Oklahoma
- Texas
- Indiana
- Ohio
- Delaware
- Georgia
- Michigan
- Missouri
- North Carolina
- Iowa
- Maine
- Kansas
- Wisconsin
- Rhode Island
- Nebraska
- Maryland
- Pennsylvania
- Wyoming
- North Dakota
- Illinois
- Florida
- Alaska
- Virginia
- New Mexico
- South Dakota
- Washington
- New Hampshire
- Arizona
- New York
- Minnesota
- Nevada
- Idaho
- New Jersey
- Oregon
- Vermont
- Connecticut
- Montana
- California
- District of Columbia
- Massachusetts
- Hawaii
- Utah
- Colorado