What Percentage of Americans Consider Themselves Overweight?

Forty-one percent of U.S. adults, on average over the past five years, from 2017 to 2021, have characterized themselves as overweight, while the slight majority (53%) have said their weight is about right and 5% reported they are underweight.

The percentage overweight is up from 36% in the prior five-year period, from 2012-2016, but similar to the rates between 2002 and 2011.

Gallup measures the public's attitudes about their personal weight situations each November as part of its Health and Healthcare poll -- one of the surveys that make up the Gallup Poll Social Series.

The findings contrast with federal health statistics that are based on physical measurements, which show that nearly three-quarters of Americans are either overweight or obese. However, the 41% describing themselves as overweight in Gallup surveys is consistent with the latest federal obesity rate of 42%, suggesting that obese people as the government defines them are the ones most likely to self-report being overweight.