This Is America’s Most Obese City

By Douglas A. McIntyre Updated Oct 4, 10:30AM EDT · Published Oct 3, 8:34AM EDT

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This Is America’s Most Obese City — © af_istocker / iStock via Getty Images

Obesity status is determined by body mass index, or BMI — a ratio of height to body weight. Americans with a BMI of 30 or higher are considered obese. Obesity increases the risk of diabetes, stroke, hypertension, heart disease, breathing problems, certain cancers, and mortality, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Obesity can also detract from the overall quality of life and contribute to depression, anxiety, and other mental illnesses.

A new study from the CDC shows that last year, 35% or more adults had obesity in 16 states. Most were in the South and Midwest. In some states, the figure was closer to 40%. Data show that the numbers are highest among the poor and some ethnic groups. A different CDC report showed that the annual medical cost of obesity was $147 billion in 2008. Every single yardstick of obesity in America shows that it is getting worse.

Though many factors, including genetics, diet, and medical conditions, contribute to the increased risk of obesity, regular physical activity is one of the best ways to help maintain a healthy weight.

Using data from County Health Rankings & Roadmaps, 24/7 Tempo identified the most obese metropolitan areas in the United States. The U.S. has one of the highest obesity rates in the world.

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The most obese city in America is Danville, Illinois. Here are the details:

Adult obesity rate: 43.2%
Adults who don’t exercise: 29.0% (63rd highest of 384 metros)
Adults with diabetes: 12.4% (110th highest)
Adults reporting poor or fair health: 21.1% (90th highest)

Methodology: To determine America’s most obese metro, 24/7 Tempo reviewed county-level adult obesity rates from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the University of Wisconsin Population Health Institute joint program’s 2021 County Health Rankings & Roadmaps report.

The adult obesity rate is defined as the share of adults 20 years and older who report a body mass index of 30 kg/m2 or higher. We aggregated county-level statistics to metropolitan statistical areas. While the CHR report is from 2021, obesity rate figures published in the report are from 2017.

We used the 384 metropolitan statistical areas as delineated by the United States Office of Management and Budget and used by the Census Bureau as our definition of metros.

Metros were ranked based on the adult obesity rate. Additional information on the share of adults who report no leisure-time physical activity, the share of adults diagnosed with diabetes, and the share of adults who report fair or poor health are also from the 2021 CHR.

Click here to see all of America’s most obese metro areas.
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About the Author Douglas A. McIntyre →

Douglas A. McIntyre is the co-founder, chief executive officer and editor in chief of 24/7 Wall St. and 24/7 Tempo. He has held these jobs since 2006.

McIntyre has written thousands of articles for 24/7 Wall St. He is an expert on corporate finance, the automotive industry, media companies and international finance. He has edited articles on national demographics, sports, personal income and travel.

His work has been quoted or mentioned in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, NBC News, Time, The New Yorker, HuffPost USA Today, Business Insider, Yahoo, AOL, MarketWatch, The Atlantic, Bloomberg, New York Post, Chicago Tribune, Forbes, The Guardian and many other major publications. McIntyre has been a guest on CNBC, the BBC and television and radio stations across the country.

A magna cum laude graduate of Harvard College, McIntyre also was president of The Harvard Advocate. Founded in 1866, the Advocate is the oldest college publication in the United States.

TheStreet.com, Comps.com and Edgar Online are some of the public companies for which McIntyre served on the board of directors. He was a Vicinity Corporation board member when the company was sold to Microsoft in 2002. He served on the audit committees of some of these companies.

McIntyre has been the CEO of FutureSource, a provider of trading terminals and news to commodities and futures traders. He was president of Switchboard, the online phone directory company. He served as chairman and CEO of On2 Technologies, the video compression company that provided video compression software for Adobe’s Flash. Google bought On2 in 2009.