Overweight prevalence in children at reception age Health and wellbeing

This indicator shows the percentage of children aged 4-5 years (reception age) classified as overweight, in England, for academic years 2006/07 to 2023/24.

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Overweight prevalence in children at reception age

Percentage of children aged 4-5 classified as overweight, 2023-24

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Selected time periods range: 2006-07 to 2023-24
2006-07
2023-24

Overweight prevalence in children at reception age

Percentage of children aged 4-5 classified as overweight, 2006-07 to 2023-24

Line chart for Overweight prevalence in children at reception age. The data is available to download below.

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Overweight prevalence in children at reception age

Percentage of children aged 4-5 classified as overweight, 2023-24

Bar chart for Overweight prevalence in children at reception age. The data is available to download below.

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Overweight prevalence in children at reception age

Percentage of children aged 4-5 classified as overweight, 2006-07 to 2023-24

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Interpretation

The data presented only includes children participating in the National Child Measurement Programme (NCMP) in state maintained schools, any measurements taken at independent and special schools are excluded from the analysis.

Children are classified as (centiles are of the British 1990 growth reference (UK90) according to age and sex):

  • Underweight if their body mass index (BMI) is less than the 2nd centile.

  • Healthy weight if their body mass index (BMI) is between the 2nd and less than the 85th centile.

  • Overweight if their body mass index (BMI) is on or above the 85th centile, but less than the 95th centile.

  • Living with obesity if their body mass index (BMI) is on or above the 95th centile.

The data source combines the City of London totals with Hackney, and the Isles of Scilly totals with Cornwall to prevent potential disclosure of individuals. Explore Local Statistics cannot visualise data for combined areas so please refer to the original data source for this data.

Impact of Covid: Usually 95% of the state sector pupils are covered by these data. Coverage reduced in 2019/20 to 75% and further in 2020/21 to around 10%. As a result completeness is low especially in 2020/21 when few Local Authorities can be published. By 2021/22 coverage, at 92%, was almost back to normal levels. Further information is available from the data supplier.

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Other indicators

Overweight prevalence in children at reception age is one of 77 local indicators on the Explore local statistics service. See the full list of local indicators.