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Date Published: 21/10/2026

Six in ten adults in Murcia have excess weight, but heavy drinking is less common

New health survey reveals high rates of overweight and obesity alongside one of Spain’s lowest levels of binge drinking

Almost 60% of adults in the Region of Murcia are overweight or obese, while the Region records one of Spain’s lowest rates of heavy drinking, according to the latest Spanish Health Survey.

The survey, published by the Ministry of Health and the National Statistics Institute (INE), paints a mixed picture of health habits across Murcia. Although adult obesity has edged down since the previous survey, the combined proportion of people who are overweight or obese remains the second highest in Spain.

The 2025 figures show that 59.85% of adults surveyed in the Region have excess weight. Only Castilla-La Mancha records a higher combined rate, by half a percentage point.

Obesity affects 18.9% of adults in Murcia, down from 20.12% two years earlier. Despite the improvement, the figure remains above Spain’s national average of 17.2%. Meanwhile, the proportion classed as overweight has risen to 40.1%, around three percentage points higher than in the previous survey and the third-highest rate among Spain’s autonomous communities.

There are differences between men and women. Almost 22% of adult women in Murcia report obesity, compared with 16% of men. However, almost half of men are overweight, against 33% of women.

The figures for children offer some encouragement. Obesity affects 8.2% of children in the Region and overweight 19.9%, both the fifth-highest rates nationally. Together, the figures represent an improvement on two years ago, when around 36% of children in Murcia had a body mass index above the recommended range.

The findings build on earlier reporting about the Region’s health trends, which highlighted falling smoking rates but continued concern about obesity.

One more positive result concerns alcohol. Just 7.4% of people aged over 15 in Murcia said they consumed large amounts of alcohol in a short period at least once a month. This is the second-lowest rate in Spain, behind Ceuta, and well below the national average of 10.2%.

Known as binge drinking, this pattern means consuming five or more alcoholic drinks in less than two hours. The reported rate among women in Murcia is lower still, at 5.3%.

That does not mean alcohol is absent from everyday life in the Region. Half of adults surveyed had consumed some form of alcohol in the previous 12 months, while reported daily intake doubled at weekends compared with weekdays.

Smoking remains a concern, too. Daily smoking among people aged 15 and over stands at 17.7%, making Murcia the second-highest region for this habit after Extremadura, despite a two-percentage-point fall over two years. The proportion of former daily smokers has risen to 21%.

Among current daily smokers, 38% consume fewer than ten cigarettes a day, another 38% smoke between ten and 19, and more than one in five smoke at least 20 daily.

Image: Towfiqu barbhuiya/Unsplash

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