Obesity in NCT

Complete Demographic & Statistical Summary for Texas 24-County Obesity

1. Dataset Structure & Coverage

DimensionDetail
Geography24 Texas counties (DFW metro + surrounding rural counties)
Time span2000–2019 (20 years, annual)
Ethnicity6 categories: Total, Latino (Any ethnicity), Non-Latino White, Non-Latino Black, Non-Latino American Indian/Alaska Native, Non-Latino Asian/Pacific Islander
Male or Female“Both” only (no male/female split in this extract)
Age groups14 five-year bands (20–24 through 80–84, plus 85+), plus 2 aggregates: “20 plus” and “20 plus, age standardized”
MetricPrevalence rate of obesity (proportion of population, e.g. 0.30 = 30%)
Total rows46,080
Data completeness67% populated (15,040 cells suppressed — typical for small-population ethnicity/age cross-tabs, e.g. Asian/Pacific Islander in rural counties)

Counties included: Bosque, Brown, Collin, Comanche, Dallas, Denton, Eastland, Ellis, Erath, Hamilton, Hill, Hood, Hunt, Jack, Johnson, Kaufman, Navarro, Palo Pinto, Parker, Rockwall, Somervell, Stephens, Tarrant, Wise


2. Statewide Trend (24-county average, age-standardized, all races)

YearObesity Prevalence
200029.96%
200535.50%
201039.65%
201542.50%
201945.39%
  • Absolute increase: +15.43 percentage points (2000→2019)
  • Relative growth: +51.5%
  • CAGR: 2.21%/year over the full period

3. Breakdown by Ethnicity (2000 vs 2019, age-standardized)

ETHNICITY20002019Δ pts% growth
Non-Latino, White28.54%43.97%+15.43+54.1%
Total29.96%45.39%+15.44+51.5%
Latino, Any ethnicity36.93%50.86%+13.93+37.7%
Non-Latino, American Indian/AK Native31.35%44.01%+12.65+40.4%
Non-Latino, Black39.73%50.92%+11.19+28.2%
Non-Latino, Asian/Pacific Islander12.59%22.54%+9.95+79.1%

Key insight: Black and Latino populations have the highest absolute obesity rates throughout the period, but Asian/Pacific Islander populations show the fastest relative growth rate — nearly doubling, albeit from a low base.


4. Breakdown by Age Group (Total ethnicity, statewide avg)

Age Band20002019Δ pts
20–2421.60%32.21%+10.61
35–3932.22%48.75%+16.52
45–49 (peak)33.48%50.93%+17.45
65–6932.67%47.37%+14.70
85+13.21%25.42%+12.21

Obesity prevalence peaks in middle age (45–54) across both years and declines after 65, consistent with national CDC patterns.


5. County-Level Highlights (2019, age-standardized)

Highest obesity prevalence:

  1. Navarro County — 49.66%
  2. Hill County — 49.29%
  3. Ellis County — 47.63%

Lowest obesity prevalence:

  1. Collin County — 35.02%
  2. Denton County — 39.60%
  3. Rockwall County — 39.68%

Fastest-growing counties (2000→2019):

  1. Johnson County — +16.50 pts
  2. Stephens County — +16.41 pts
  3. Wise County — +16.25 pts

Pattern: affluent, more urbanized counties near Dallas (Collin, Denton, Rockwall) consistently post the lowest rates; rural/exurban counties (Navarro, Hill, Stephens) post the highest.


6. Growth Projections (Linear Trend Extrapolation)

YearFull-period trend (2000–19)Recent-momentum trend (2015–19)
202046.7%46.1%
202248.2%47.5%
202550.5%49.7%
203054.4%53.3%

 Linear extrapolation only — does not account for COVID-era disruptions, policy interventions, or demographic shifts. Treat as a directional estimate, not a forecast.


7. Practical Uses of This Data

  • Public health resource allocation — target counties (Navarro, Hill, Ellis) for intervention funding
  • Grant writing / research justification — supports Tarleton State research with quantified disparity trends by ethnicity and county
  • Healthcare facility planning — bariatric/metabolic service demand forecasting by region
  • Policy support — demonstrates disparate impact across ethnicity groups for equality-focused programs
  • Academic publication — 20-year longitudinal dataset suitable for trend/disparity analysis in peer-reviewed work
  • Insurance/employer wellness programs — regional risk stratification

8. Note on Dashboard Metric

Your two dashboards plot SUM(Obesity) (summed across multiple age-group rows per county/ethnicity/year) — values in the 5–7.5 range. This is a different scale than the age-standardized prevalence rate (%) used in this summary. Both are valid for comparison purposes (year-over-year, county-over-county), but the dashboard values aren’t directly interpretable as “% of population obese” the way the age-standardized figures above are.