News

National Childhood Obesity Week starting today (July 1st) aims to raise awareness of the dangers of being above a healthy weight during childhood.

The National Child Measurement Programme (NCMP) measures the height and weight of around one million school children in England every year providing a detailed picture of the prevalence of childhood obesity.

The latest figures for 2011/12 show that 19.2% of children in Year 6 (aged 10-11) were obese and a further 14.7% were overweight.

Of children in Reception (aged 4-5), 9.5% were obese and another 13.1% were overweight. This means almost a third of 10-11 year olds and over a fifth of 4-5 year olds were overweight or obese.

Data are also available from the Health Survey for England (HSE), which includes a smaller sample of children than the NCMP but covers a wider age range.

Results from 2010 show that around 30% of children aged 2 to 15 were classed as either overweight or obese.