Health
3 out of 10 children are overweight or obese
Proportion of children that are obese: by age group, England
Three out of ten (30 per cent) of children aged two to 15 in England were classed as either overweight or obese in 2007. This was a rise of around 6 percentage points since 1995. There was no statistically significant difference between the proportion of overweight or obese boys and girls in 2007.
The overall proportion of obese children aged two to 15 was 16 per cent in 2007, a rise of around 5 percentage points since 1995. Between 1995 and 2007 the proportion of boys aged two to 10 who were classed as obese, rose by around 6 percentage points from 10 per cent to 16 per cent. This compares with an increase of 4 percentage points since 1995 among girls aged two to 10 (from 10 per cent to 14 per cent). In 2007 nearly two out of ten (19 per cent) of girls aged 11 to 15 were obese, an increase of around 4 percentage points since 1995. This compares with around 18 per cent of boys aged 11 to 15 classed as obese, unchanged since 2006, but an increase of 4 percentage points since 1995.
Proportion of children aged 11 to 15 who drank alcohol in the week prior to interview, England
In 2007, over half (54 per cent) of children aged 11 to 15 stated that they had consumed an alcoholic drink at least once. However, children’s experience of drinking alcohol was strongly associated with age, with 81 per cent of 15-year-olds reporting that they had drunk an alcoholic drink at least once compared with 20 per cent of 11-year-olds.
One out of five (20 per cent) of children aged 11 to 15 had drunk alcohol in the week prior to interview in England, a proportion which has declined from 26 per cent in 2001. It is therefore likely that around 640,000 children had drunk alcohol in the week prior to interview in 2007. While the proportion of boys who had drunk alcohol in the week prior to interview had decreased since 1988 from 24 per cent to 20 per cent in 2007, the proportion of girls increased from 17 per cent to 20 per cent over the same period. However, both of the proportions in 2007 had decreased from a peak in 2001 (28 per cent for boys and 25 per cent for girls). In 2007 children who drank in the previous week consumed on average 12.7 units, equivalent to over six pints of normal strength beer or nearly one and a half bottles of wine.
Children’s attitude to drinking also changes with age. Four out of five (83 per cent) 15-year-olds stated that it is ‘OK to try drinking alcohol to see what it’s like’, compared with one in three (29 per cent) 11-year-olds. However, the proportion of 11 to 15-year-olds in England who have never drunk alcohol has risen in recent years, from 39 per cent in 2001 to 46 per cent in 2007.
Source: Health Survey for England (2007) and Drug use, smoking and drinking among young people in England 2007, The NHS Information Centre for health and social care
Notes: The 1990 UK National BMI percentile classification is used for children aged under 16. This gives a threshold for each age, above which a child is considered overweight or obese. Those children within the 85th and 95th percentile are classified as overweight and those above the 95th percentile are classified as obese, compared with 1990 BMI UK reference data.
Data on drinking are based on secondary school pupils, aged 11 to 15.
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Focus on Children and Young People