Introduction

Tackling obesity is one of the greatest long-term health challenges currently faced in England. Around two-thirds (63%) of adults are above a healthy weight, and of these half are living with obesity. In England 1 in 3 children leaving primary school are overweight or living with obesity with 1 in 5 living with obesity.

Obesity prevalence is highest amongst the most deprived groups in society. Children in the most deprived parts of the country are more than twice as likely to be obese than those living in the least deprived areas.

Obesity is associated with reduced life expectancy and a range of health conditions including type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease, liver and respiratory disease and cancer. Obesity can also have an impact on mental health.

Tackling and preventing obesity is a high priority for the Government. The current policies and actions are set out in the following documents

• Tackling obesity: empowering adults and children to live healthier lives
• Childhood obesity: a plan for action, chapter 2

This profile presents the latest available data to help understand and monitor the patterns and trends in obesity at national, regional, and local levels.

NCMP child obesity indicators

The National Child Measurement Programme (NCMP) measures the height and weight of over one-million children in Reception (age 4-5 years) and Year 6 (age 10-11 years) each year in primary schools in England. The NCMP is an excellent source of surveillance data which helps increase understanding of the patterns and trends in underweight, healthy weight, overweight, and obesity among the child population.

NCMP data from 2006/07 to 2019/20 is available in this profile. Prevalence of underweight, healthy weight, overweight, obesity and severe obesity can be examined at local authority level. Data quality indicators are also displayed, for example rate of participation in the NCMP.

To help identify pockets of high child obesity prevalence within local authorities this profile includes an NCMP small area data domain. Trend data is available on the prevalence of excess weight (overweight including obesity) and obesity for Middle Super Output Areas (MSOA), Electoral Wards, and Clinical Commissioning Groups (CCG).

School closures, in March 2020, due to the Covid-19 pandemic meant that in 2019/20 the number of children measured was around 75% of previous years. Analysis by NHS Digital shows that national and regional level data is reliable and comparable to previous years.The data at local authority level and below is not as robust, as a result a small number of areas do not have published data for 2019/20 and data for some areas has a reliability flag indicating that figures need to be interpreted with caution. Further information is available here and in the NHS Digital 2019/20 annual report.

Adult obesity indicators

The Active Lives survey conducted by Sport England collects data on self-reported height and weight among adults aged 18 years and over in Local Authority areas across England. Public Health England uses this data to produce estimates of adult excess weight prevalence for the Public Health Outcomes Framework. The data is adjusted at an individual level to better align with measured height and weight and then age standardised to improve comparability between local authorities.

Further details of the self-report adjustment and age-standardisation are available here and in the definitions tab within the profile.

Prevalence of excess weight (overweight including obesity) can be examined in this profile at local authority level, data for other BMI categories will be added in 2021. Comparisons can be made between areas and over time for data from 2015/16 to 2018/19.

Local authority data on obesity in early pregnancy is also presented in the profile.

Contextual indicators

These indicators provide local authority level estimates for several topic areas that are determinants of or related to child obesity. For each topic area, where possible, the information is shown by gender, ethnicity, sexuality, region and local authority.