Why we lead.

El Paso County has about 866,000 residents, of whom roughly 228,800 are under age 18.

Based on state and national surveillance data, around 36% of adults in El Paso County are living with obesity, which translates to approximately 230,000 adults 18 and older.
Applying current Texas childhood obesity estimates (about 1 in 5 children with obesity) to El Paso’s youth population suggests that around 45,000 local children are already living with obesity.

In other words, on any given day in El Paso County, roughly a quarter of a million adults and nearly fifty thousand children are carrying the physical, emotional, and financial weight of obesity. Because more than 80% of the county’s population is Hispanic and nearly 1 in 5 residents lives below the poverty line, these burdens fall disproportionately on families who already face structural barriers to health, income, and care.

If El Paso does not significantly bend this curve in the next decade, the community is likely to see a reinforcing, multigenerational cycle in four major areas:

Earlier and more severe chronic disease across families

• Children with obesity are more likely to become adults with obesity, and their risk of type 2 diabetes, hypertension, heart disease, and some cancers rises sharply as they age.

• Ten years from now, today’s 8-year-olds with obesity will be 18, entering adulthood already at elevated risk for diabetes and cardiovascular disease – conditions that historically emerged much later in life.

• Because obesity and diabetes already cluster more in Hispanic and low-income communities like El Paso, the disease burden will not be spread evenly: the same households will see grandparents, parents, and now young adults all managing serious chronic conditions at the same time.

Escalating health care costs and strain on local systems

• Nationally, obesity drives hundreds of billions of dollars in medical costs and productivity losses every year, with total economic impact now estimated above $700 billion–$1.4 trillion annually in the US.

• Children with obesity already incur higher annual medical costs than their healthy-weight peers; these costs compound as they age into adults with diabetes, heart disease, and mobility limitations.

• For El Paso, this means a growing share of household income, employer benefits, and public funds (Medicaid, county safety-net services) will be consumed by preventable, weight-related conditions, leaving fewer resources for education, housing, and community development.

Impacts on learning, mental health, and long-term earning power

• Childhood obesity is linked to anxiety, depression, low self-esteem, bullying, and lower self-reported quality of life, all of which can erode school engagement and performance.

• Emerging research shows childhood obesity can reduce intergenerational income and social mobility, meaning today’s children with obesity are more likely to become adults who earn less and have fewer opportunities than their peers.

A reinforcing cycle of poverty, environment, and health

• Obesity risk is tightly connected to limited access to healthy foods, safe places to be active, and preventive care – all of which are influenced by neighborhood-level poverty and infrastructure.

• Without intervention, families where adults are already living with obesity and economic stress are more likely to raise children in the same conditions, perpetuating a loop where each generation faces higher health risks and fewer economic options than the last.

• Ten years from now, if trends are unchanged, El Paso will not only have more people living with obesity, but also more households where three generations share overlapping health problems, caregiving burdens, and financial strain – making it much harder to “catch up” later.