How Fat Is Your State?

July 8, 2009 -- A new CDC report shows that the nation's waistline is still growing, or holding steady in some states, but not shrinking at all.

The CDC today released its latest obesity statistics, based on interviews conducted last year with more than 400,000 U.S. adults who reported their height and weight.

Overall, 26.1% of U.S. adults were obese in 2008, compared to 25.6% in 2007, according to a CDC news release.

The results also show that adult obesity is most common in Mississippi and rarest in Colorado, which is the only state in the nation where less than 20% of adults are obese.

If that news sounds familiar, it may be because those states -- Mississippi and Colorado -- were in the same spots on the list last year. And just last week, the Trust for America's Health released its own report on U.S. obesity, which also ranked Mississippi as the most obese state.

Along with the new obesity statistics, the CDC's web site shows a series of U.S. maps indicating each state's percentage of obese adults from 1985 to 2008. Lighter states are blue, and they darken and redden as adult obesity increases.

The maps darken and redden as the years pass, with Colorado becoming the only blue state on the 2007 and 2008 adult obesity maps.

Here are the percentages of obese adults in U.S. states and Washington, D.C., according to the new CDC data:

1. Mississippi: 32.8%
2. Alabama: 31.4%
3. West Virginia: 31.2%
4. Tennessee: 30.6%
5. Oklahoma: 30.3%
6. South Carolina: 30.1%
7. Kentucky: 29.8%
8. North Carolina: 29%
9. Michigan: 28.9%
10. Arkansas and Ohio: 28.7%
11. Missouri: 28.5%
12. Louisiana and Texas: 28.3%
13. Pennsylvania: 27.7%
14. South Dakota: 27.5%
15. Kansas: 27.4%
16. Georgia: 27.3%
17. North Dakota: 27.1%
18. Delaware: 27%
19. Nebraska: 26.6%
20. Illinois: 26.4%
21. Indiana: 26.3%
22. Alaska: 26.1%
23. Iowa and Maryland: 26%
24. Nevada and Virginia: 25%
25. Washington state and Wisconsin: 25.4%
26. Maine and New Mexico: 25.2%
27. Arizona: 24.8%
28. Wyoming: 24.6%
29. Idaho: 24.5%
30. Florida and New York: 24.4%
31. Minnesota: 24.3%
32. Oregon: 24.2%
33. New Hampshire: 24%
34. Montana: 23.9%
35. California: 23.7%
36. New Jersey: 22.9%
37. Vermont: 22.7%
38. Hawaii: 22.6%
39. Utah: 22.5%
40. Washington, D.C.: 21.8%
41. Rhode Island: 21.5%
42. Massachusetts: 20.9%
43. Connecticut: 21%
44. Colorado: 18.5%