The prevalence of obesity among adults in England has been generally been trending upwards since 2000. In that year, 21 percent of men and women in England were classified as obese. However, by 2022 this share was 30 percent among women and 28 percent among men. Obesity causing strain on health service As the prevalence of obesity is increasing in England, the number of hospital admissions as a result of obesity has also increased. In the period 2019/20, around eight thousand women and nearly 2.7 thousand men were admitted to hospital. A huge rise from the admission levels fifteen years previously. The highest number of admissions due to obesity were found in the age group 45 to 54 years, with over 3.1 thousand admissions in that age group. Situation in Scotland In Scotland in 2022, the mean Body Mass Index of women was 28.1 and for men it was 27.9. A BMI of over 25 is classed as overweight. While the prevalence of obesity or morbid obesity in Scotland in 2020 was 30 percent among women and 26 percent among men.

This report presents information on obesity, physical activity and diet drawn together from a variety of sources for England. More information can be found in the source publications which contain a wider range of data and analysis. Each section provides an overview of key findings, as well as providing links to relevant documents and sources. Some of the data have been published previously by NHS Digital. A data visualisation tool (link provided within the key facts) allows users to select obesity related hospital admissions data for any Local Authority (as contained in the data tables), along with time series data from 2013/14. Regional and national comparisons are also provided. The report includes information on: Obesity related hospital admissions, including obesity related bariatric surgery. Obesity prevalence. Physical activity levels. Walking and cycling rates. Prescriptions items for the treatment of obesity. Perception of weight and weight management. Food and drink purchases and expenditure. Fruit and vegetable consumption. Key facts cover the latest year of data available: Hospital admissions: 2018/19 Adult obesity: 2018 Childhood obesity: 2018/19 Adult physical activity: 12 months to November 2019 Children and young people's physical activity: 2018/19 academic year

In 2022, 39 percent of men and 31 percent of women in England were classed as overweight. At first glance, it may seem that the share of overweight people in England has decreased since the year 2000, but the share of obesity in England has increased since then, indicating that England’s problem with weight has gotten worse. Strain on health service due to obesity The number of hospital admissions as a result of obesity in England has increased alongside this rise in obesity. In the period 2019/20, over eight thousand women and 2.6 thousand men were admitted to hospital. An escalation from the admission levels in 2002/03. The highest number of admissions due to obesity were found in the age group 45 to 54 years, with over 3.1 thousand admissions in that age group. Situation in Scotland In Scotland in 2020, the mean Body Mass Index of women was 27.8 and for men it was 27.5. A BMI of over 25 is classed as overweight. While the share of adults classed as obese or morbidly obese in Scotland in this year was 30 percent for women and 26 percent for men.

In 2022, 40 percent of women and 37 percent of men living in the North East of England were classed as obese, the highest rates for both genders. In most regions of England, around a third of adults had a BMI classed as obese.

In 2019, 27 percent of boys and 20 percent of girls aged between 11 and 15 years in England were classed as obese. Additionally, in the age group two to ten years old, 15 percent of boys and eight percent of girls were obese. Prevalence among adults The prevalence of obesity among adults in England has been creeping upwards since 2000. In that year, 21 percent of men and women were classed as obese in England. However, by 2021 this share had increased to 26 percent for women and 25 percent for men. Obesity heavy on the health service The number of hospital admissions as a result of obesity in England has increased alongside the general increase in obesity. In the year 2019/20, almost 8.1 thousand women and 2.7 thousand men were admitted to hospital. A vast rise from the admission levels in 2002/03. The highest number of admissions due to obesity were found in the age group 45 to 54 years, with over 3.1 thousand admissions in that age group.

This statistic displays the prevalence of childhood obesity* in the United Kingdom (UK) from 1975 to 2016, by gender. At the beginning of this time series, female children in the UK were more likely to be obese than males. This changed in 1995, when the obesity rates for both male and female children in the UK equaled eight percent. As of 2016, 12.7 percent of male children are considered obese, compared to 10.2 percent of female children. It is also notable that the obesity rate in female children has declined from a high point of 10.4 percent in 2010.

Forecast: Prevalence of Overweight Among Male in United Kingdom 2024 - 2028 Discover more data with ReportLinker!

This statistic displays the share of overweight individuals in England in 2022, by gender and region. In this year, 74 percent of men and 63 percent of women in the North East of England were classed as overweight.

The tables provide data for adults (defined as people aged 16 and over) and children (defined as people aged between 0 and 15).

Background: Cardiorespiratory fitness may moderate the association between obesity and all‐cause mortality (ie, the “fat‐but‐fit” hypothesis), but unaddressed sources of bias are a concern. Methods and Results: Cardiorespiratory fitness was estimated as watts per kilogram from a submaximal bicycle test in 77 169 men and women from the UK Biobank cohort and combined with World Health Organization standard body mass index categories, yielding 9 unique fitness‐fatness combinations. We also formed fitness‐fatness combinations based on bioimpedance as a direct measure of body composition. All‐cause mortality was ascertained from death registries. Multivariable‐adjusted Cox regression models were used to estimate hazard ratios and 95% CIs. We examined the association between fitness‐fatness combinations and all‐cause mortality in models with progressively more conservative approaches for accounting for reverse causation, misclassification of body composition, and confounding. Over a median follow‐up of 7.7 years, 1731 participants died. In our base model, unfit men and women had higher risk of premature mortality irrespective of levels of adiposity, compared with the normal weight–fit reference. This pattern was attenuated but maintained with more conservative approaches in men, but not in women. In analysis stratified by sex and excluding individuals with prevalent major chronic disease and short follow‐up and using direct measures of body composition, mortality risk was 1.78 (95% CI, 1.17–2.71) times higher in unfit‐obese men but not higher in obese‐fit men (0.94 [95% CI, 0.60–1.48]). In contrast, there was no increased risk in obese‐unfit women (1.09 [95% CI, 0.44–1.05]) as compared with the reference. Conclusions: Cardiorespiratory fitness modified the association between obesity and mortality in men, but this pattern appeared susceptible to biases in women.

The Health Survey for England is a series of annual surveys designed to measure health and health related behaviours in adults and children living in private households in England. The survey has been commissioned by the Information Centre for health and social care since April 2005 and carried out since 1994 by the Joint Health Surveys Unit. The survey consists of an interview and nurse visit. It has a series of core elements that are included every year and special topics that are included in selected years. Core topics include general health, smoking, drinking and fruit and vegetable consumption, height, weight, blood pressure measurements and blood and saliva samples. Special topics include cardiovascular disease, physical activity, accidents, lung function measurement and certain blood analytes. The trend tables focus upon key changes in core topics and measurements. This year the trend tables have been reformatted for ease of use and for the first time, include figures for all adults and for all children as well as for men and women and boys and girls. Tables for adults and children are presented in separate workbooks. New tables have been introduced this year on waist circumference and a combination of BMI and waist circumference for adults, and physical activity levels for children. Detailed findings for 2006 are reported in the main report: Health Survey for England 2006, cardiovascular disease and risk factors in adults, and Obesity and other risk factors in children.

In 2022, over 33 percent of both men and women in the United States reported themselves as obese (BMI over 30), making it the country with the highest percentage of obese adults on this list. Other selected countries on the list with a high prevalence of obesity among adults included the United Kingdom and Australia. Obesity groups in the United States In 2022, Black adults had the highest overweight and obesity rates of any race or ethnicity in the United States. Asians and Native Hawaiians or Pacific Islanders had the lowest rates by far, with roughly 14 percent. In 2021, about 30 percent of people aged 65 and older were obese in the United States. This estimate has been steadily increasing since 2013 when roughly 27 percent of elderly Americans were obese. Leading health problems worldwide Obesity was considered one of 2023’s biggest health problems: 25 percent of adults worldwide stated that obesity was the biggest health issue for people within their country. Around 44 percent of adults stated that mental health was the most significant problem facing their country that year.

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Summary-level data as presented in:

"Meta-analysis of genome-wide association studies for body fat distribution in 694,649 individuals of European ancestry." Pulit, SL et al. bioRxiv, 2018. https://www.biorxiv.org/content/early/2018/04/18/304030

**If you use these data, please cite the above preprint.

If you have any questions or comments regarding these files, please contact me:

Sara L Pulit
spulit@well.ox.ac.uk or s.l.pulit@umcutrecht.nl

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(1) Data files

i. whradjbmi.giant-ukbb.meta-analysis.combined.23May2018.txt
Meta-analysis of waist-to-hip ratio adjusted for body mass index (whradjbmi) in UK Biobank and GIANT data. Combined set of samples, max N = 694,649.

ii. whradjbmi.giant-ukbb.meta-analysis.females.23May2018.txt
Meta-analysis of whradjbmi in UK Biobank and GIANT data. Female samples only, max N = 379,501.

iii. whradjbmi.giant-ukbb.meta-analysis.males.23May2018.txt
Meta-analysis of whradjbmi in UK Biobank and GIANT data. Male samples only, max N = 315,284.

iv. whr.giant-ukbb.meta-analysis.combined.23May2018.txt
Meta-analysis of waist-to-hip ratio (whr) in UK Biobank and GIANT data. Combined set of samples, max N = 697,734.

v. whr.giant-ukbb.meta-analysis.females.23May2018.txt
Meta-analysis of whr in UK Biobank and GIANT data. Female samples only, max N = 381,152.

vi. whr.giant-ukbb.meta-analysis.males.23May2018.txt
Meta-analysis of whr in UK Biobank and GIANT data. Male samples only, max N = 316,772.

vii. bmi.giant-ukbb.meta-analysis.combined.23May2018.txt
Meta-analysis of body mass index (bmi) in UK Biobank and GIANT data. Combined set of samples, max N = 806,834.

viii. bmi.giant-ukbb.meta-analysis.females.23May2018.txt
Meta-analysis of bmi in UK Biobank and GIANT data. Female samples only, max N = 434,794.

ix. bmi.giant-ukbb.meta-analysis.males.23May2018.txt
Meta-analysis of bmi in UK Biobank and GIANT data. Male samples only, max N = 374,756.

(2) Data file format

CHR: Chromosome

POS: Chromosomal position of the SNP, build hg19

SNP: the dbSNP151 identifier of the SNP, followed by the first allele and second allele of the SNP, delimited with a colon. A small number of SNPs (<9,000) from the GIANT data had no dbSNP151 identifier, and are left as just an rsID. Note that these SNPs are also missing chromosome and position information (not provided in the GIANT data).

Tested_Allele: the allele for which all association statistics are reported

Other_Allele: the other allele at the SNP

Freq_Tested_Allele: frequency of the tested allele

BETA: the effect size of the tested allele

SE: the standard error of the beta

P: the p-value of the SNP, as reported from the inverse variance-weighted fixed effects meta-analysis

N: the total sample size for this SNP

INFO: the imputation quality (info score) of the SNP, as reported by UK Biobank. A number between 0 and 1 indicating quality of imputation (0, poor quality; 1, high quality or genotyped). Note that the summary-level GIANT data does not report info score, so SNPs appearing only in the GIANT analysis do not have info scores.

By 2025, the prevalence of obese men in Hungary was projected to be at 36 percent, this would be the highest obesity prevalence in men across all countries in the EU and the United Kingdom. Malta with 35.9 percent was forecast to have the second highest prevalence of obese men in Europe, followed by the United Kingdom at 35.4 percent.

Dataset relating to trial registration ISRCTN86152135

Objective: To establish whether vigorous-intensity exercise offers additional adipose-related health benefits and metabolic improvements compared to energy-matched moderate-intensity exercise. Methods: Thirty-eight sedentary overweight men (n=24) and postmenopausal women (n=14) aged 52 ± 5 years (mean ± SD) were prescribed a 3-week energy deficit (29302 kJ∙week-1) achieved by increased isocaloric moderate or vigorous-intensity exercise (+8372 kJ∙week-1) and simultaneous restricted energy intake (-20930 kJ∙week-1). Participants were randomly assigned to either an energy-matched vigorous (VIG; n=18) or moderate (MOD; n=20) intensity exercise group (five times per week at 70% or 50% maximal oxygen uptake, respectively). At baseline and follow-up, fasted blood samples and abdominal subcutaneous adipose tissue biopsies were obtained and oral glucose tolerance tests conducted. Results: Body mass was reduced similarly in both groups (∆ 2.4 ± 1.1 kg and ∆ 2.4 ± 1.4 kg, respectively, P<0.05). Insulinaemic responses to a standard glucose load decreased similarly at follow-up relative to baseline in VIG (∆ 8.6 ± 15.4 nmol.120min.l-1) and MOD (∆ 5.4 ± 8.5 nmol.120min.l-1; P<0.05). Expression of SREBP-1c and FAS in adipose tissue was significantly down-regulated whereas expression of PDK4 and HSL was significantly up-regulated in both groups (P<0.05). Conclusions: When energy expenditure and energy deficit are matched, vigorous or moderate-intensity exercise combined with energy restriction provide broadly similar (positive) changes in metabolic control and adipose tissue gene expression.

In 2022, men aged 55 to 64 years had an average body mass index (BMI) of 29 kg/m2 and women in the same age group had a BMI of 28.8 kg/m2, the highest mean BMI across all the age groups. Apart from individuals aged 16 to 24 years, every demographic in England had an average BMI which is classified as overweight.An increasing problem It is shown that the mean BMI of individuals for both men and women has been generally increasing year-on-year in England. The numbers show in England, as in the rest of the United Kingdom (UK), that the prevalence of obesity is an increasing health problem. The prevalence of obesity in women in England has increased by around nine percent since 2000, while for men the share of obesity has increased by six percent. Strain on the health service Being overweight increases the chances of developing serious health problems such as diabetes, heart disease and certain types of cancers. In the period 2019/20, England experienced over 10.7 thousand hospital admissions with a primary diagnosis of obesity, whereas in 2002/03 this figure was only 1,275 admissions. Furthermore, the number of bariatric surgeries taking place in England, particularly among women, has significantly increased over the last fifteen years. In 2019/20, over 5.4 thousand bariatric surgery procedures were performed on women and approximately 1.3 thousand were carried out on men.

This statistics display the distribution of weight classification in England in 2022, based on self--reported body mass index (BMI). In this year, 39 percent of men and 31 percent of women were classed as being overweight. Those with a BMI of between 25 and 29.9 are classed as overweight.

Since 2002, there has been an increase in the number of hospital admissions for obesity in England. In 2022/23, there were almost 7,000 hospital admissions of women with a primary diagnosis of obesity and 2,000 hospital admissions for men, although both genders had their peak number of admissions in 2011/12. The highest number of admissions due to obesity were found in the age group 35 to 44 years, with over 2.1 thousand admissions. Obesity prevalence in England The prevalence of obesity among adults in England has been creeping upwards since 2000. In that year, 21 percent of men and women were classified as obese in England. However, by 2022 this share had increased to 30 percent for women and 28 percent of men. Situation north of the border In Scotland in 2023, the mean body mass index of women was 28.3 and for men it was 27.8. A BMI of over 25 is classed as overweight, with over 30 classed as obese. The share of adults classed as obese or morbidly obese in Scotland in this year was 29 percent for women and 26 percent for men.

This statistic presents opinions of British men and women in the United Kingdom (UK) regarding the Government's prioritisation of reducing childhood obesity rates, as of February 2015. In this period, 59 percent of individuals interviewed think reducing childhood obesity rates should be a high priority for the government.