The Economic Costs of Obesity

by Jeff Springer August 15, 2012, 5:26 am 2.5k Views

Here’s some fascinating, almost jaw-dropping, information about the economic costs of obesity in America.

– Americans consume 938 million extra gallons of gas/year due to excess passenger weight which results in an extra $4 billion in obesity related gasoline costs.

– 86% of Americans are expected to be overweight by 2030

– The estimated indirect cost of obesity in America is $450 billion per year

– Obesity costs the average man an extra $2,646 per year and the average woman an extra $4,879 on average

– Airlines use an estimated 350 million additional gallons of fuel to handle excess weight in passengers (a cost which gets passed on to everyone)

Source: www.top-nursing-programs.com via CP

The moral of the story is that obesity costs a lot both on a national and individual level. With 86% of Americans on track to become obese within the next two decades, it’s clearly in our national economic interest to fight this epidemic.

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Jeff Spring is the Finance & Markets Editor at BusinessPundit.com. He's currently spending his days backpacking across Europe. While he may be living outside of the United States, he stays connected to American financial markets and M&A's more than is probably healthy for any single person. His love of a good book and a Bloomberg terminal can't be understated.