Obesity Thrives in the Suburbs

Living in a more densely built area significantly lowers your risk of obesity. Such is the unavoidable conclusion of a new survey of British cities that compares obesity rates with housing density. The study, carried out by specialists at the universities of Oxford and Hong Kong, found that obesity rates were markedly lower in areas where homes were more tightly clustered.

This might not come as a shock, given the long touted health benefits of walkable neighborhoods. What makes the study, published in medical journal The Lancet and first covered by Reuters, truly groundbreaking is its sheer scale, collating data for over 419,000 respondents in 22 British metropolitan areas over a period of four years. While it would be mistaken to assume that observations made in the U.K. could apply everywhere, they make one thing clear: Residents’ health is highly likely to improve when sprawling suburbs are made more dense. As the graph below details, it also breaks ground by matching obesity levels with specific rates of housing density.