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New data on children's height and weight published

Last modified date:

25 February 2008

Around 80 percent of school children in reception and year six - an increase of 32 percent compared to the previous year - were weighed and measured as part of the Government’s obesity strategy.

The National Child Measurement Programme, established in 2005, checks children's height and weight to enable local health services to identify children who are, or who are at risk of becoming overweight.

The figures, recorded in 2006/07, show that:
• in reception year (age four to five) one in four children (22.9 percent) were overweight or obese
• in year six (age ten to 11) one in three children (31.6 percent) were overweight
• in both age groups, boys are more likely than girls to be obese
• London has the highest obesity prevalence for both age groups - 11.3 percent in year one and 20.8 percent in year six
• the south east coast area has the lowest obesity prevalence for Reception - 8.5 percent
• the south west area has the lowest prevalence for year six - 14.9 per cent.

The recently published obesity strategy, Healthy Weight, Healthy Lives, is particularly focused on children. Its aim is to reduce the proportion of those who are overweight and obese back to 2000 levels by 2020.