Where people don’t exercise, obesity is higher

Physical inactivity and obesity are both measured by the CDC from the same national health survey, modelled down to each county.

Each dot in the chart is one of 2,916 counties. The correlation between Adults with No Leisure-Time Exercise and Adults with Obesity is 0.75, a very strong relationship: about 56% of the differences in Adults with Obesity from place to place line up with Adults with No Leisure-Time Exercise. Ranked instead of measured, the link is 0.72.

The highest Adults with Obesity is in Perry County, AL (54.0%), Greene County, AL (53.4%) and Humphreys County, MS (53.0%); the lowest is in San Francisco County, CA (17.1%), Boulder County, CO (17.4%) and Summit County, UT (19.3%). The median place has 38.2% for Adults with Obesity and 26.5% for Adults with No Leisure-Time Exercise.

The biggest exceptions sit furthest from the trend line. Marion County, OR, Henry County, GA and Putnam County, OH have a much higher Adults with Obesity than their Adults with No Leisure-Time Exercise would predict, while Queens County, NY, San Francisco County, CA and New York County, NY have a much lower one.

This is a comparison across places, not proof that one causes the other: both can follow from something else, such as income, age or how urban a place is. Adults with No Leisure-Time Exercise is from 2023 and Adults with Obesity from 2023.