Health behavior statistics show how daily choices and care-seeking patterns shape population health. The latest available figures range from global estimates in 2022 to U.S. survey results from 2023, with alcohol-attributable mortality measured in 2019 and some tobacco monitoring reported in 2026. Together, they describe physical activity, weight and diet, tobacco and alcohol use, online health behaviors, and preventive care.
Contents
- Global physical activity levels
- Diet, weight, and nutrition
- Tobacco and nicotine use
- Alcohol use and related behavior
- Health information and digital care
- Preventive and care-seeking behavior in the U.S.
Global physical activity levels
Physical activity is one of the clearest population-level indicators of everyday health behavior. In 2022, nearly 31% of adults worldwide—about 1.8 billion people—were physically inactive. In this measure, inactivity means not meeting the recommendation of at least 150 minutes of moderate activity per week. The global adult prevalence had increased by 5 percentage points between 2010 and 2022. These figures come from the World Health Organization’s Physical activity fact sheet.
The outlook is also expressed as a projection rather than an observed result: if the trend observed through 2022 continues, 35% of adults worldwide are projected to be physically inactive by 2030. The WHO estimates that physical inactivity could cost public health-care systems about US$300 billion over 2020–2030, or approximately US$27 billion per year, if inactivity is not reduced.
Differences by sex and age begin early. Women’s global physical-inactivity prevalence was 5 percentage points higher than men’s on average in 2022. About 81% of adolescents aged 11–17 worldwide were physically inactive, including 85% of girls and 78% of boys. The WHO reports that people who are insufficiently active have a 20%–30% higher risk of death than people who are sufficiently active.
Diet, weight, and nutrition
Weight-related measures provide another broad view of health behavior and its surrounding environment. One in eight people worldwide were living with obesity in 2022, and worldwide adult obesity prevalence had increased by more than twofold between 1990 and 2022. Among adults aged 18 and older, 43% were overweight in 2022: 43% of men and 44% of women. About 16% of adults in this age group were living with obesity. These figures are reported in the WHO’s Obesity and overweight fact sheet.
The pattern also affects children and adolescents. More than 390 million people aged 5–19 were overweight in 2022, including over 160 million living with obesity. The prevalence of overweight including obesity in this age group rose from 8% in 1990 to 20% in 2022. In 2022, 19% of girls and 21% of boys aged 5–19 were overweight, while the share living with obesity increased from 2% in 1990 to 8% in 2022. Separately, an estimated 35 million children under age 5 were overweight in 2024; this is a later measurement period than the 2022 figures above.
The reported health and economic burden is substantial. Higher-than-optimal body mass index was estimated to cause 3.7 million noncommunicable-disease deaths globally in 2021. If no action is taken, global costs of overweight and obesity are projected to reach US$3 trillion per year by 2030 and exceed US$18 trillion per year by 2060. These are projections, not observed costs for those future years.
WHO healthy-diet guidance, current as of 2026, recommends at least 400 grams of fruit and vegetables per day and at least 25 grams of naturally occurring dietary fibre per day for everyone older than age 10. The guidance places the typical recommended share of daily energy from carbohydrates at approximately 45%–75%. More than half of children under age 5 and more than two-thirds of non-pregnant women of reproductive age are deficient in at least one key micronutrient globally. These guidance and nutrition figures are from Healthy diet.
| Indicator | Measurement | Period or status |
|---|---|---|
| Adults worldwide who were overweight | 43% | 2022 |
| Adults worldwide living with obesity | 16% | 2022 |
| Ages 5–19 overweight including obesity | 20% | 2022 |
| Recommended fruit and vegetables | 400 g/day or more | WHO guidance current as of 2026 |
| Recommended naturally occurring fibre | 25 g/day or more | WHO guidance current as of 2026 |
Tobacco and nicotine use
Tobacco behavior combines exposure, dependence, quitting intentions, and the availability of prevention and cessation support. The latest WHO monitoring reported in 2026 says tobacco use kills more than 7 million people worldwide each year, including more than 1.6 million nonsmokers exposed to second-hand smoke. Around 1.2 billion people worldwide use tobacco, and about 80% of them live in low- and middle-income countries. The source for these measures is Tobacco and nicotine.
Across countries with Global Adult Tobacco Surveys, more than 60% of smokers said they intended to quit on average. However, only 31 countries, representing about one-third of the world’s population, provide national comprehensive tobacco-cessation services with full or partial cost coverage. More than one-third of the world’s population living in 79 countries is protected by comprehensive national smoke-free laws.
Policy reach varies across other tobacco-control measures. Graphic health-warning best practices cover 62% of the world’s population across 110 countries. More than 2.9 billion people in 36 countries lived in places that aired at least one strong anti-tobacco mass-media campaign during the preceding two years. Sixty-eight countries, representing more than one-quarter of the world’s population, have completely banned all forms of tobacco advertising, promotion, and sponsorship. Only 41 countries, covering 12% of the world’s population, tax tobacco products at the WHO-recommended level of at least 75% of retail price. About one in every 10 cigarettes and tobacco products consumed globally is estimated to be illicit.
Alcohol use and related behavior
The most recent alcohol-attributable mortality figures in this dataset describe 2019. Alcohol consumption caused about 2.6 million deaths worldwide that year. Approximately 1.6 million were from noncommunicable diseases, 700,000 from injuries, and 300,000 from communicable diseases. About 2 million deaths were among men and 600,000 among women. These estimates are summarized by WHO in Alcohol.
Alcohol-use disorders affected an estimated 400 million people aged 15 and older in 2019, or 7% of that population. About 209 million people, equal to 3.7% of the adult world population, lived with alcohol dependence. People aged 20–39 accounted for 13% of alcohol-attributable deaths in 2019.
Some measures moved in different directions over time. Global alcohol-attributable mortality per 100,000 people decreased by 20.2% between 2010 and 2019. Average alcohol consumption was 5.8 litres of pure alcohol per person aged 15 and older worldwide in 2019, down from 6.1 litres in 2010. These trends do not change the fact that the 2019 burden remains the latest period represented here.
Health information and digital care
Digital health behavior is common but uneven across demographic groups in the United States. During July–December 2022, 58.5% of U.S. adults used the internet in the previous 12 months to look for health or medical information. The measure was 63.3% among women and 53.5% among men. The CDC’s Health Information Technology Use Among Adults: United States, July–December 2022 reports these results.
Health-information searching was reported by 62.7% of adults aged 18–29, 67.2% of those aged 30–44, and 36.3% of those aged 75 and older. By race and Hispanic origin, the reported shares were 63.4% for White non-Hispanic adults, 60.1% for Asian non-Hispanic adults, 49.0% for Black non-Hispanic adults, and 46.2% for Hispanic adults.
Online communication with clinicians was less common than general health-information searching. During the same period, 41.5% of U.S. adults used the internet in the previous 12 months to communicate with a doctor or doctor’s office. The rate was 47.2% among women and 35.6% among men; it was 41.5% among adults aged 18–29, 47.7% among those aged 30–44, and 24.3% among those aged 75 and older.
Looking up medical test results was reported by 46.1% of U.S. adults. The share was 52.2% among women and 39.6% among men, and it varied from 44.2% among adults aged 18–29 to 50.5% among those aged 30–44 and 29.8% among those aged 75 and older.
Preventive and care-seeking behavior in the U.S.
U.S. National Health Interview Survey estimates for 2023 show high use of some routine services alongside meaningful gaps in prevention and affordability. The Early Release of Selected Estimates Based on Data From the 2023 National Health Interview Survey reports that 84.6% of U.S. adults aged 18 and older had seen a doctor in the previous 12 months. In the same period, 20.6% had visited a hospital emergency department and 13.3% had been counseled by a mental-health professional.
| U.S. adult behavior or service use | Share in 2023 |
|---|---|
| Saw a doctor in the previous 12 months | 84.6% |
| Blood pressure checked in the previous 12 months | 87.0% |
| Dental exam or cleaning in the previous 12 months | 65.5% |
| Influenza vaccination in the previous 12 months | 48.0% |
| Visited a hospital emergency department in the previous 12 months | 20.6% |
| Counseled by a mental-health professional in the previous 12 months | 13.3% |
Blood-pressure checks were reported by 87.0% of adults, while 65.5% had a dental exam or cleaning. Influenza vaccination was reported by 48.0%. These percentages refer to the previous 12 months as measured in the 2023 survey and should not be interpreted as lifetime coverage.
Cost affected access for some adults. In 2023, 6.4% of U.S. adults did not get needed medical care because of cost in the previous 12 months, and 5.4% did not get needed mental-health care because of cost. These measures capture reported unmet care because of cost; they do not quantify all reasons people may delay or forgo care.