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Publication, Part of

National Child Measurement Programme, England, 2021/22 school year

Official statistics, National statistics

Publication Date:
3 Nov 2022
Geographic Coverage:
England
Geographical Granularity:
Regions, Local Authorities
Date Range:
01 Sep 2021 to 31 Jul 2022
National Statistics

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National Child Measurement Programme, England, 2021/22 school year

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Introduction
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Summary

This report presents findings from the Government's National Child Measurement Programme (NCMP) for England, 2021/22 school year.

It covers children in Reception (aged 4-5 years) and Year 6 (aged 10-11 years) in mainstream state-maintained schools in England.

The report contains analyses of Body Mass Index (BMI) classification rates by age, sex, deprivation and ethnicity as well as geographic analyses.

Access the code used to create this report

The code used to create the outputs for this report is available on our NHS Digital GitHub webpage.

Click here to access the code

Key Facts

The prevalence of Reception children living with obesity decreased

From 14.4% in 2020/21 to 10.1% in 2021/22

This is higher than pre-pandemic levels

The prevalence of Year 6 children living with obesity decreased

From 25.5% in 2020/21 to 23.4% in 2021/22

This is higher than pre-pandemic levels

Boys have a higher prevalence of living with obesity than girls for both age groups

In Reception, 10.3% of boys were living with obesity compared to 9.9% of girls

In Year 6, 26.4% of boys were living with obesity compared to 20.4% of girls

Children living in the most deprived areas were more than twice as likely to be living with obesity, than those living in the least deprived areas

13.6% of Reception children living in the most deprived areas were living with obesity compared to 6.2% of those living in the least deprived areas

31.3% of Year 6 children living in the most deprived areas were living with obesity compared to 13.5% of those living in the least deprived areas

Last edited: 12 December 2022 1:37 pm