Horrifying fact about US population Most of know or have an idea about roughly how much of the US is overweight.  I was in a discussion earlier and wanted to figure out how much of the US population is morbidly obese.  The answer was surprising, around 6% of the US population was morbidly obese as of 2010.  That number is probably higher now.  Here is the NIH study where I got the numbers.   For those that don't know the rough break down of the US adult population by BMI is as follows: Underweight ~2% of the population.  A BMI of < 18.49. Healthy weight ~29.2 % of the population.  A BMI of 18.5 - 24.9. Over weight ~33.1 % of the population.  A BMI of 25.0 -29.9. Obese, but not morbidyly obese ~ 29.4% of the population.  A BMI of 30 - 39.9. Morbidly Obese ~ 6.3 % of the population.  A BMI > 40.   Again these numbers are from 2010, and the trend for overweight and obese individuals is on the rise.  So I imagine the numbers are higher now.  Source for those who want to read the paper.   Edit: I realized that I included the number of morbidly obese in the obese percentage, even though I had it labeled as obese but not morbidly obese.