Nursery World - Deprived four and five-year-olds twice as likely to be obese

While the proportion of four- and five-year-olds classed as obese has marginally fallen, new data shows that those in deprived areas are twice as likely to be overweight.

The NHS figures show the proportion of Reception children that are obese has marginally fallen, PHOTO: Adobe Stock

According to the latest data from the National Child Measurement programme for England, the percentage of obese Reception children has fallen from 10.1 per cent in 2021/22 to 9.2 per cent in 2022/23.

The NHS says the proportion of children classed as obese is now falling back towards pre-pandemic levels.

Four- and five-year-olds in the most deprived areas were more than twice as likely to be obese than those in the least deprived areas, a findings which Dr Mike McKean, vice president of the Royal College for Paediatrics and Child Health (RCPCH), called ‘unacceptable’.

The percentage of obese children in Year 6 has also fallen, however one in four children are still obese by the time they leave primary school, according to the data.

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