By AVA TURNQUEST

Tribune Chief Reporter

aturnquest@tribunemedia.net

THE Bahamas has been ranked the sixth most obese country in the world based on 2014 statistics from the World Health Organisation.

An obesity rate of 36.2 per cent pushed the country ahead of regional counterparts like Barbados and Trinidad and Tobago, who ranked 12 and 13 on the top 25 list that was published by Yahoo News.

The United States came in ninth on the list.

Bahamian women had a significantly higher rate of obesity than men, according to the data compiled by HealthGrove, a health research firm that sourced WHO data from countries with populations that exceeded 150,000.

The obesity rate was calculated as the rate of people with a body mass index (BMI) greater than or equal to 30 as of 2014.

The island nation of Samoa claimed the title of the most obese country in the world with a rate of 43.4 per cent. Samoa has a population of 195,476. Arab countries Qatar and Kuwait came in second and third respectively.

According to the report, the Bahamas’ obesity rate jumped nearly three percentage points from 2010 when the rate was 33.5 per cent.

The obesity rate for Bahamian women was recorded at 42.5 per cent and Bahamian men at 29.7 per cent.

However, the rate for men showed the largest increase from the 2010 figure of 26.4 per cent. The rate for Bahamian women in 2010 was 40.2 per cent.