For the first time, more kids are obese than underweight

Something striking just happened in global nutrition: As of 2025, children worldwide are now more likely to be obese than underweight.

According to UNICEF’s new Child Nutrition Report, about 9.4 percent of school-age kids (ages 5–19) are living with obesity, compared to 9.2 percent who are underweight. Twenty-five years ago, the gap was much wider: Nearly 13 percent of kids were underweight, while just 3 percent had obesity. Over time, those lines have converged and flipped.

It might feel odd to put obesity in the same bucket as underweight; one has long been seen as a problem of scarcity, the other of excess. But public health experts now define both as forms of malnutrition, which they describe in three dimensions: not enough food, too much of the wrong food, and hidden hunger from micronutrient deficiencies.

Link to Vox