New statistical office figures How overweight are the people in Bonn and the region?

Bonn · More than half the residents in North Rhine-Westphalia are overweight. But in comparison to those numbers, Bonn has the least amount of obese people. The figures look different for the Rhein-Sieg area. And there are major differences between men and women.

Bonn - together with Aachen and Münster - has the least obese residents in North-Rhine Westphalia, in the Rhein-Sieg area though more than half of the people are above the normal weight levels. Althoughthe differencesbetween men and women in both areas, Bonn and Rhein-Sieg, are huge.These are the results of the micro census 2017, which were now presented by the statistical office.

According to those figures, 53.4 % of the people in NRW are overweight. The World Health Organisation (WHO) considers women and men with a body mass index (BMI) of 25 plus as obese. The BMI is the quotient of the weight in kilograms and thesize in meters squared.

Here are the rankings of the WHO:

BMI below 18,5: underweight
BMI between 18,5 and 25: normal weight
BMI between 25 and 30: overweight, but not adipose
BMI between 30 and 40: overweight, adipose
BMI over 40: overweight, massively adipose

2017, the micro census was conducted in NRW. During an additional survey, on a voluntary basis, people in private households were asked about their details in regard to size and weight, 9.6 million residents above the age of 18 took part. From these figures, it results that 54.4 percent of people in Bonn fall into the normal weight category, with a BMI between 18.5 and 25. The average Bonn person has a BMI of 25.1. This figure being just above the normal weight levels is due to the comparatively high numbers of massively adipose residents. 1.4 percent of the Bonn people have a BMI exceeding 40, the countrywide average is 1.3 percent.

However, the numbers of overweight people in the Rhein-Sieg area are higher. Only 45.3 percent of the people there are in the normal weight range, whereas 52.7 percent are overweight. 1.9 percent of the Rhein-Sieg residents are considered underweight, in Bonn it is 2.2 percent. The average BMI in the Rhein-Sieg area is 25.8. These figures also show: The people in the Rhein-Sieg area weigh 77 kilogram on average and are 1.72 m tall. Whereas the average Bonn person is a centimetre taller and weighs 1.8 kilogram less.

Differences between men and women

The BMI differences between men and women are bigger in Bonn and the Rhein-Sieg area. 54.7 percent of male Bonn residents are obese, in the Rhein-Sieg area it’s 64.2 percent. 63.5 percent of women in Bonn are in the normal weight range, and 55.8 percent in the Rhein-Sieg area.

While the numbers for men and women in the figures for the massively obese only differ slightly, the differences in the underweight section are more obvious. 3.5 percent of the women in Bonn (3.3 percent in the Rhein-Sieg area) are underweight, and 1.0 percent of the men in Bonn (0.6 in the Rhein-Sieg area).

Data of people living in shared accommodation was not included. „Since 2017, people living in shared accommodation are not included in the micro census, and only few socio-demographic details for them are being surveyed; thus this group of people is not taken into account any more“, said the spokesperson of the statistical office.

(Original text: Sebastian Fink, Translation: Mareike Graepel)

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