The 10 Fattest Cities in America

Where did your city rank?

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By David Oliver , Associate Editor, Social Media | March 22, 2017, at 11:28 a.m.

America has an obesity problem. And it's one that's costing Americans almost $316 billion per year in related medical treatment, according to WalletHub.

The organization came out with its 2017 Fattest Cities in America list Wednesday. It analyzed 100 of the most populous U.S. metro areas, looking at 17 weight-associated factors, ranging from "share of physically inactive adults to projected obesity rates by 2030 to healthy-food access," according to the report.

The Jackson, Mississippi metro area took the top spot on the list, while Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue in Washington snagged the lowest.

The highest percentage of both obese adults and physically inactive adults can be found in the McAllen-Edinburg-Mission metro area of Texas, which ranked fourth overall for fattest city in America.

Other rankings in the report include highest and lowest percentage of adults with high blood pressure and highest and lowest percentage of adults eating fewer than one serving of fruits/vegetables per day.

More than one-third – 36.5 percent – of U.S. adults are obese, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Obesity in children and adolescents between the ages 2 of 19 sits at 17 percent. WalletHub highlights one statistic claiming more than 70 percent of the U.S. is overweight or obese (ages 15 and up).


Metro Area Overall Fattest RankObesity Overweight Rank

Jackson, MS 1 2

Memphis TN-MS-AR 2 3

Little Rock-North Little Rock-Conway, AR 3 4

McAllen-Edinburg-Mission, TX 4 6

Shreveport-Bossier City, LA 5 1

Chattanooga, TN-GA 6 17

Mobile, AL 7 14

Lafayette, LA 8 5

Winston-Salem, NC 9 39

Knoxville, TN 10 25