Just how many overweight or obese Americans are receiving treatment with GLP-1s? The past six years have seen a staggering 600% increase in the number taking the medications, even as their own figures are shrinking. FAIR Health, a non-profit focused on providing transparent, data-driven research on healthcare costs and coverage. Recently, the organization conducted a study surveying billions of health insurance claims made by individuals prescribed weight-loss medications, including Ozempic, Mounjaro, Saxenda, Wegovy and Zepbound, between 2019 and 2024. By 2024, nearly 4% of Americans were taking the meds to treat obesity or diabetes—with half of that cohort for weight loss specifically. Taking the 2024 U.S. Census into consideration, this means that more than 10 million Americans have at some point likely opted to use GLP-1 injections. (Additionally, FAIR Health’s study found that number of U.S. adults who received bariatric surgery has decreased by 41.8% as of 2024.) Even with this rise in prescriptions, the report still found that as many as 80% of overweight or obese patients were not being served with a weight loss jab or other treatment plans—at least not yet.
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