Share of children who are overweight or obese in Papua New Guinea
Papua New Guinea: Share of children who are overweight or obese was 18.5% in 2024. ▲ Rising
Share of children who are overweight or obese in Papua New Guinea, 2000–2024
Source: World Health Organization - Global Health Observatory (2026) – with minor processing by Our World in Data. Measured in %.
Analysis
In 2024, share of children who are overweight or obese in Papua New Guinea stood at 18.5%.
That represents a change of down 0.5% on the previous year and up 37.0% over ten years.
Over the whole period, share of children who are overweight or obese in Papua New Guinea peaked at 18.6% in 2023 and was at its lowest, 4.5%, in 2000.
That places Papua New Guinea 2nd out of 163 countries with data for 2024, putting it in the top 10%.
The long-run direction has been consistently rising across the 25 years of available data.
Averages by decade
| Decade | Average | Lowest | Highest | Years |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2000s | 6.6% | 4.5% | 9.3% | 10 |
| 2010s | 13.9% | 10.1% | 17.4% | 10 |
| 2020s | 18.4% | 17.9% | 18.6% | 5 |
Countries ranked near Papua New Guinea
More reference data data for Papua New Guinea
- Spring temperature anomalies 0.1159 °C (2026)
- Summer temperature anomalies -0.0178 °C (2026)
- Temperature anomalies by month 0.504 °C (2026)
- Universal right to vote in practice 2 (2025)
- Democracy 7 (2025)
- Chief executive of the government is elected 1 (2025)
- Competitive elections 1 (2025)
- Elected parliament 1 (2025)
- Civil liberties rating 3 (2025)
- Free country 1 (2025)
Frequently asked questions
- What is share of children who are overweight or obese in Papua New Guinea?
- Share of children who are overweight or obese in Papua New Guinea was 18.5% in 2024, according to World Health Organization - Global Health Observatory (2026) – with minor processing by Our World in Data.
- What is the highest share of children who are overweight or obese recorded in Papua New Guinea?
- The highest recorded value was 18.6% in 2023.
- What is the lowest share of children who are overweight or obese recorded in Papua New Guinea?
- The lowest recorded value was 4.5% in 2000.
- How does Papua New Guinea rank for share of children who are overweight or obese?
- Papua New Guinea ranks 2nd out of 163 countries with data for 2024.
- Is share of children who are overweight or obese rising or falling in Papua New Guinea?
- Over the last ten years it is up 37.0%. The long-run trend across the full record is rising.
- Where does this Papua New Guinea data come from?
- The figures come from World Health Organization - Global Health Observatory (2026) – with minor processing by Our World in Data, published as part of Share of children who are overweight or obese. Statizoid updates them automatically from the source API.
Download this data
CSV · JSON — 25 observations, free to reuse under CC BY 4.0 (Our World in Data).
About this data
Share of children under five years old that are defined as overweight or obese. A child is classified as overweight if their weight-for-height is more than two standard deviations from the median of the World Health Organization (WHO) Child Growth Standards.