New Health Survey Reveals the Azores Face a Growing Public Health Challenge
There are statistics that disappear into government reports, and there are statistics that force a society to pause and look at itself in the mirror. The latest National Health Survey belongs unmistakably to the latter.
The figures released for 2025 reveal that the Azores now have the highest obesity rate in Portugal, while simultaneously recording the country’s lowest daily consumption of vegetables. These two numbers, taken together, tell a story far larger than nutrition alone. They speak of lifestyle, education, economic realities, cultural habits, and the complex relationship between modern society and personal health.
Nearly two-thirds of the adult population of the Azores—63.7 percent—are now classified as overweight or obese. More than 128,000 adults fall into these categories, including almost 54,000 living with obesity itself. Only about one-third of the adult population maintains what is considered a healthy weight.
These numbers should concern every family, every school, every municipality, every health professional, and every policymaker.
Yet obesity is not simply about appearance or body weight. It is one of the principal risk factors for many of the chronic diseases that increasingly shape modern healthcare systems. Diabetes, hypertension, cardiovascular disease, joint disorders, and several forms of cancer are all closely associated with excess weight. They reduce quality of life, shorten life expectancy, increase healthcare costs, and affect productivity across society.
The survey paints precisely this broader picture.
More than one quarter of the adult population reports hypertension. Elevated cholesterol affects a similar proportion. Chronic back pain has become the most commonly reported long-term health condition, affecting more than one in three adults. Diabetes now impacts one in eight residents, while depression affects more than 15 percent of the population. These conditions are not isolated statistics; they often reinforce one another, creating cycles of declining physical and mental well-being.
Lifestyle factors further complicate the picture.
Nearly one in five adults continues to smoke, with most smokers consuming tobacco every day. Alcohol consumption remains widespread, with almost two-thirds of residents reporting drinking during the previous year, and more than one in ten consuming alcohol daily. Meanwhile, the finding that perhaps deserves the greatest attention—the exceptionally low daily consumption of vegetables—raises important questions about dietary patterns that begin long before adulthood.
The paradox is striking.
The Azores possess some of the richest agricultural landscapes in Europe. Fertile volcanic soils produce an abundance of fresh vegetables, fruits, dairy products, and high-quality local foods. Fresh fish remains deeply embedded in the islands’ culinary traditions. Yet availability alone does not guarantee healthy consumption. Modern lifestyles, convenience foods, changing family routines, economic pressures, and increasingly sedentary habits have gradually reshaped eating behaviors across generations.
This challenge is by no means unique to the Azores. Around the world, societies are confronting rising obesity rates despite unprecedented access to nutritional information. The issue is not simply knowledge; it is the environment in which choices are made. Healthy decisions become more difficult when time is scarce, processed foods are convenient, physical activity declines, and nutrition education struggles to keep pace with commercial marketing.
The answer, therefore, cannot rest solely on individual responsibility.
Public health succeeds when communities work together. Schools play a central role by introducing children to healthy eating habits early in life. Municipalities can invest in recreational spaces, walking paths, sports facilities, and community wellness programs. Healthcare professionals can strengthen preventive care rather than focusing primarily on treatment after disease has already developed. Families remain the first classroom of nutrition, where lifelong habits are formed around the dinner table.
The survey also reminds us that prevention remains one of the wisest investments any society can make.
Every healthier meal, every walk, every child encouraged to enjoy fresh produce, every family that replaces inactivity with movement represents not merely a personal decision but a contribution to the collective health of the community. Prevention rarely makes headlines because its successes are measured by illnesses that never occur. Yet its impact is immeasurable.
The Azores have demonstrated, in many areas, an extraordinary ability to confront complex challenges through community spirit and collective action. Public health deserves that same determination.
The goal should not be to assign blame, nor to stigmatize those struggling with weight or chronic illness. Obesity is influenced by genetics, socioeconomic conditions, education, mental health, environment, and access to healthy choices. Compassion must always accompany public policy.
But neither should these numbers be dismissed as inevitable.
They are a warning. And warnings are valuable only when they inspire action.
The volcanic landscapes of the Azores remind us that the greatest transformations occur slowly, almost imperceptibly, over time. Human health follows much the same path. The habits cultivated today become the statistics of tomorrow.
The latest National Health Survey offers the Region an opportunity—not merely to measure its health, but to redefine its future. If these findings encourage renewed investment in prevention, nutrition, education, physical activity, and healthier communities, then the figures released today may ultimately represent not a diagnosis of decline, but the beginning of a healthier chapter for the Azores.
Translated and adapted from a story in Diário dos Açores-Paulo Viveiros, director. Photos are also from Diário dos Açores.