- England
Latest findings from the National Child Measurement Programme have found that levels of overweight and obese Year 6 children are at their highest since records began. Since 2006/07 the NCMP has annually measured the height and weight of over 1 million reception (aged 4-5) and Year 6 (aged 10-11) children, to provide robust data on rates of childhood obesity. BMI classifications can be broken down by child age and sex, local authority, region, level of deprivation, urban/rural classification, ethnicity and ONS area classification. Key findings include:
- Over a fifth of reception and one third of Year 6 children are overweight or obese
- In Year 6, overweight and obesity prevalence has increased from 31.6% (2006/07) to 34.2% (2015/16)
- Obesity prevalence is higher for boys than girls
- Obesity prevalence was double in the most deprived areas in comparison to the least deprived areas
- Obesity prevalence varies by local authority, from 5.1% to 14.7% in reception age, and 11% to 28.5% in Year 6 children.
