Highlights

LOS ANGELES, CA (Catholic Online) - About 29% of the world's population, that's about 2.1 billion people, where either overweight or obese in 2013, a recent study has found. Nearly two thirds of these people live in developing countries.

The study, led by researchers from the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation at the University of Washington, was published in the journal the Lancet. By analyzing the heights and weights of people from 183 countries, the study showed that between 1980 and 2013 the amount of obese and overweight people rose by 27.5% for adults and 47.1% for children, and today, 36.9% of all men and 38% of all women are considered overweight or obese.

The study said that the increase has "been substantial, widespread, and have risen over a short time."

In this same period, no nation reported a significant decrease in weights, said the director of IHME, Christopher Murray. "The fact that no country has had a statistically significant reduction in the time period was a surprise," he said.

The study did not go into details or examine possible reasons for the sharp and very short rise. It did, however, place the blame on numerous, well known, possible factors, which included poor diet and growing physical inactivity.

The U.S. suffered in the study, holding 13% of the world's obese population. The developing world also has the highest obesity rates. North America and Europe retain the world's heaviest population, but those rates have slowed since 2006.

Over 50% of the world's obese people live in 10 countries, which are in order: the U.S., China, India, Russia, Brazil, Mexico, Egypt, Germany, Pakistan and Indonesia.

Middle Eastern and North African countries have a particularly high rates of childhood obesity, the study said.

Murray noted that obesity is a particularly troubling issue facing the modern world. "I think of obesity as uniquely concerning because it's one of the top health risks, and among the top risks it's the only one going up."