(The cartoon image above is by Rick McKee in The Augusta Chronicle.)The Gallup Poll just released its health/well-being results for 2013 about obesity. The results are from the surveys they took between January 1st and December 29th of 2013 of 178,072 nationwide adults. Because of the enormous size of the survey, the margin of error is only about 1 point (and the margin of error for most states is only 1 to 2 points).
It turns out that about 27.1% (more than a quarter) of the American population is obese. But that obesity is not spread evenly among all the states. Some states have more obesity than others. I list below the states with the highest and lowest rates of obesity:
HIGHEST OBESITY RATES
Mississippi..........35.4%
West Virginia..........34.4%
Delaware..........34.3
Louisiana..........32.7%
Arkansas..........32.3%
South Carolina..........31.4%
Tennessee..........31.3%
Ohio..........30.9%
Kentucky..........30.6%
Oklahoma..........30.5%
Indiana..........29.9%
Texas..........29.8%
LOWEST OBESITY STATES
Montana..........19.6%
Colorado..........20.4%
Nevada..........21.1%
Minnesota..........22.0%
Massachusetts..........22.2%
Connecticut..........23.2%
New Mexico..........23.5%
California..........23.6%
Hawaii..........23.7%
New York..........24.0%
I know it probably doesn't mean anything, but I found the distribution of red and blue states very interesting -- especially when you consider that while they have Democratic governors, Arkansas and Kentucky are pretty red states (and that New Mexico is generally a blue state, even though it has a Republican governor).
What do you think? Am I seeing a pattern where none exists?
If you would like to see the obesity percentage in your own state, you can go to the Gallup Poll site.
