Sugar & Health Index (EU-27)
How the 27 EU countries compare on sugary drink habits and the health conditions linked to excess sugar, using official survey data only. A higher score means a more worrying situation compared with the other EU countries. Choose a view, then click a column title to sort.
Read with care. The score ranks countries against each other: 0 is the best EU value on every indicator, 100 the worst. It does not measure sugar intake directly, which is only measured in a minority of countries, and it does not show that drinks cause the health outcomes. Surveys date from 2019 to 2025, and several figures are self-reported.
What the data shows
Malta has the highest score for the general population: the highest adult obesity rate in the EU (26.6%), diabetes at 10.0%, and 12.4% of people drinking sugary drinks every day.
of people aged 15 or over in Belgium drink sugary soft drinks every day, the highest share in the EU and more than twice the EU average of 9.1%. In Estonia, 2.4% do.
Italy has the lowest adult obesity rate in the EU (7.0%, self-reported), yet 36.9% of its 8-year-olds are overweight, the second highest share measured by WHO in an EU country, after Cyprus.
Sources and method
General population, three indicators:
- Adult obesity: share of people aged 18 or over with a body mass index of 30 or more, self-reported, 2025 (Eurostat, sdg_02_10). Figures for Czechia, Ireland, Lithuania and Poland are flagged by Eurostat as of low reliability.
- Diabetes: age-standardised prevalence among adults aged 20 to 79, 2024 (IDF Diabetes Atlas, 11th edition).
- Daily sugary drinks: share of people aged 15 or over who drink sugar-sweetened soft drinks at least once a day, 2019 (Eurostat, European Health Interview Survey, hlth_ehis_fv7e). EU average 9.1%. No figure for the Netherlands, whose score uses the two other indicators.
Children and teenagers, two indicators from the Health Behaviour in School-aged Children study (HBSC), 2021/22, a WHO collaborative survey of pupils aged 11, 13 and 15:
- Overweight, obesity included: based on self-reported height and weight and WHO growth references. No usable figure for Ireland and Romania (samples with too much missing data were removed by HBSC); their score uses the drinks indicator only. Belgium combines the Flemish and French-speaking surveys.
- Daily sugary drinks: share who drink sugary soft drinks at least once a day. Belgium: Flemish survey only.
- Each value is the simple average of girls and boys at ages 11, 13 and 15, as published by HBSC. The HBSC averages shown are those of all countries and regions in the survey.
The measured overweight of children aged 7 to 9 (WHO Europe, COSI round 6, 2022 to 2024) is shown for reference but not included in the score, because Belgium, France, Germany and the Netherlands have no national figure.
Score: each indicator is rescaled from 0 (lowest value among EU countries) to 100 (highest value), then the indicators are averaged with equal weights and rounded. Colours: 0 to 24, 25 to 49, 50 to 74, 75 to 100. Other weightings would change the order of countries with close scores.
Change of method: this index was rebuilt on 3 November 2026 from the sources above. The first version (June 2026) used estimates without country sources, food supply data and a ten-year projection; it has been withdrawn. Country maps of the same indicators: Europe by country. Spotted an error? Tell us.
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