National Survey Findings on Obesity Prevalence in High School Students

New Youth Risk Behavior Survey (YRBS) findings show that obesity prevalence among US high school students (grades 9–12) rose over the past decade, increasing from 13.7% (2013) to 15.9% (2023) and reaching a peak of 16.3% in 2021.

The share of high school students reporting attempts to lose weight also declined from 47.7% to 44.5% between 2013 and 2023.

Investigators evaluated trends across survey cycles using standardized BMI percentile definitions by age and sex. Overweight prevalence moved in the opposite direction from obesity, declining from 16.6% to 14.7%.

Males had higher obesity prevalence than females across survey years, and obesity prevalence was highest among 11th‑grade students in 2023. Black and Hispanic/Latino adolescents were reported as having the highest obesity prevalence, with a peak of approximately 20%–21% in 2021, while Asian adolescents were described as having the lowest obesity prevalence but an increase over time (11% in 2023, up from 5.6% in 2013).