The report found that this would be nearly double the amount from 2005 when social costs of obesity-related illnesses accounted to nearly $1.5bn.
Findings are based on an analysis of 1.91 million people’s medical records that are stored in the database of the National Health Insurance.
Professor Kang Jae-heaon, head of the research, noted that the cost increases are in line with the country’s rising obesity rate, which increased from 26.3% in 1998 to 31.7% in 2005.
“The actual social costs of obesity may be much higher than what the research showed us as we were unable to find data on all obesity-related illnesses,” he said.