Number of obese adults in the world surged for the past four decades, reaching a record high of 641 million in 2014, according to the English medical journal the Lancet on Friday.
The figure was a nearly sixfold increase from 105 million 40 years ago. If the trend continues, 20 percent of the total adult population will be obese by 2025, the report said.
Collecting data from 19.2 million adults from 186 countries in 2014, Imperial College London professor Majid Ezzati found that 10.8 percent of men and 14.9 percent of women were obese.