Obesity is on the rise in Cyprus. 15.5% of adults have a BMI of 30 or higher.

Obesity in Cyprus affects 15.5% of the adult population, according to the latest Eurostat data for 2025. This is slightly lower than the European Union average of 16.3%, but significantly higher than three years earlier. In 2022, the rate for Cyprus was 13.8%.

The increase is therefore 1.7 percentage points, or approximately 12%, compared to the level in 2022. The data concerns people aged 18 and over, and Eurostat considers obesity to be a BMI of at least 30.

Obesity in Cyprus below EU average but rising

Cyprus with a result 15,5% remains below the EU average of 16.3%.

The difference, however, is not big – it is only 0.8 percentage points.

The change over time is more striking. As recently as 2022, the share of adults classified as obese was 13.8%. This represents a 1.7 percentage point increase over the past three years.

The latest data do not mean that Cyprus is among the EU countries with the greatest obesity problem, but they do show a deterioration in the indicator.

Malta highest, Italy lowest

The differences between EU countries are very large.

The highest percentage of people with obesity was recorded by Eurostat in:

• Malta – 26.6%
• Latvia – 24.6%
• Finland – 23.2%

At the other end of the list were:

• Italy – 7.0%
• Greece – 12.8%
• Romania – 12.9%

This means that in Malta the percentage of people with obesity is almost four times higher than in Italy.

More than half of adults in the EU are overweight or obese

Obesity itself is only part of the picture.

Eurostat reports that the next 35.4% of adult EU residents falls into the category known as "pre-obesity", meaning it has a BMI of 25 to less than 30.

After combining both groups, it turns out that 51.7% of adults in the EU have a BMI of at least 25 – so it falls into the overweight or obese category.

Across the EU, the difference is also visible between women and men.

Obesity affects:

• 17.4% men
• 15.3% women

The difference is even greater in the overweight category without obesity: 41.9% of men versus 29.3% of women. These figures apply to the entire EU, not just Cyprus.

What does BMI actually mean?

BMI is calculated based on weight and height. For adults:

• below 18.5 means underweight,
• 18.5–24.9 – range considered normal,
• 25–29.9 – overweight,
• 30 and over – obesity.

The WHO also emphasizes that BMI is an indirect indicator – it helps assess risk at the population and individual level, but it does not directly indicate the amount or distribution of body fat.

The latest Eurostat data therefore show two things at the same time: Cyprus still performs slightly better than the EU average, but the percentage of people with obesity is rising.

And what does Poland look like?

In Poland, the problem of excess body weight is greater than the European Union average. According to Eurostat data for 2025 58.8% of adult Poles had a BMI of at least 25, meaning they were in the overweight or obese category. The average for the entire EU was 51.7%.

However, this is a broader indicator than the one reported for Cyprus. 15.5% of people are obese, because the Polish 58.8% also includes overweight people whose BMI is between 25 and 30. Therefore, these two values cannot be compared directly.

Polish research conducted by the National Institute of Public Health and National Institute of Hygiene provides an additional picture: in the data for 2025, obesity affected approximately 15% of men and 13% of women in PolandHowever, these values come from a different study than the latest Eurostat ranking, so I would treat them as context, not a direct Poland-Cyprus ranking.

Source: Eurostat, Cyprus News Agency, World Health Organization, NIZP-PZH