Interactive map reveals WA’s Pinjarra as having the most obese and overweight Australians

The Australian Health Policy Collaboration recently featured the Australia’s Health Trackers map, which reveals that a person’s postcode can affect their tendency to develop health problems, blood pressure, portliness and inclination to drink. The interactive map also showed that people living in Pinjarra in Western Australia are most prone to getting fat, while those in affluent urban locations are less likely to have weight problems.

The Australia’s Health Trackes map was developed at Victory University, together with the Public Health Information and Development Unit at Torrens University. According to Rosemary Calder, director of the Australian Health Policy Collaboration, the map aims to track localised data and use it to lower dangerous rates of chronic diseases. Calder stated that half of all Australians suffer from chronic diseases, but only one-third of these are preventable.

News.com reports that Pinjarra, an inland town in WA, located about 85km south of Perth, has the biggest weight problem in Australia. 76.2 percent of Pinjarra’s adult population are categorised as either overweight or obese. The lowest figure in WA was in the inner west of Perth, at 53 percent, although it shows how unhealthy majority of Australians in the region are. As for New South Wales, Raymond Terrace near Newcastle has the highest rate, with 70.8 percent of its adults categorized as either overweight or obese. Haymarket and The Rocks in Sydney had the lowest figure at 44.3 percent.

In Victoria, Campbellfield in Melbourne’s north had the worst weight problems at 70.9 percent, while its Central Business District fared much better at 42.8 percent. In Queensland, Warwick had the most obese and overweight residents at 73.6 percent. Kangaroo Point in Brisbane, however, only rated 49.8 percent. Kadina and Moonta had the most overweight and obese people in South Australia at 74.2 percent. In Adelaide, the numbers only totaled 48.9 percent.

The Australia’s Health Trackers map in 2016 also showed what the government is attempting to accomplish in 2025. The country aims to lower the current total of obese individuals of 27.9 percent to 24.6percent in the next decade. The total obese or overweight individuals are expected to go down from 63.4 percent to 61.1 percent. The high blood pressure total of 23 percent should go down to 16.1 percent by 2025. More updates and details are expected soon.