Note 08/07/13: Errata for regarding two variables incorrectly labelled with the same description in the Data Archive for the Health Survey for England - 2008 dataset deposited in the UK Data Archive Author: Health and Social Care Information Centre, Lifestyle Statistics Responsible Statistician: Paul Eastwood, Lifestyles Section Head Version: 1 Original date of publication: 17th December 2009 Date of errata: 11th June 2013 · Two physical activity variables (NSWA201 and WEPWA201) in the Health Survey for England - 2008 dataset deposited in the Data Archive had the same description of 'on weekdays in the last week have you done any cycling (not to school)?'. This is correct for NSWA201, but incorrect for WEPWA201 · The correct descriptions are: · NSWA201 - 'on weekdays in the last week have you done any cycling (not to school)?' · WEPWA201 - 'on weekends in the last week have you done any cycling (not to school)?' · This has been corrected and the amended dataset has been deposited in the UK Data Archive. NatCen Social Research and the Health and Social Care Information Centre apologise for any inconvenience this may have caused. Note 18/12/09: Please note that a slightly amended version of the Health Survey for England 2008 report, Volume 1, has been made available on this page on 18 December 2009. This was in order to correct the legend and title of figure 13G on page 321 of this volume. The NHS IC apologises for any inconvenience caused. 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 was commissioned originally by the Department of Health and, from April 2005 by The NHS Information Centre for health and social care. The Health Survey for England has been designed and carried out since 1994 by the Joint Health Surveys Unit of the National Centre for Social Research (NatCen) and the Department of Epidemiology and Public Health at the University College London Medical School (UCL). The 2008 Health Survey for England focused on physical activity and fitness. Adults and children were asked to recall their physical activity over recent weeks, and objective measures of physical activity and fitness were also obtained. A secondary objective was to examine results on childhood obesity and other factors affecting health, including fruit and vegetable consumption, drinking and smoking.

This statistical report presents information on obesity, physical activity and diet, drawn together from a variety of sources. The topics covered include: Obesity related hospital admissions. Prescription items for the treatment of obesity. Adult obesity prevalence. Childhood obesity prevalence. Physical activity levels among adults and children. Diet among adults and children, including trends in purchases, and consumption of food and drink and energy intake. Each section provides an overview of the key findings from these sources, as well as providing sources of further information and links to relevant documents and sources. Some of the data have been published previously by NHS Digital. A data visualisation tool at the link below allows users to select obesity related hospital admissions data for any Local Authority (as contained in Excel tables 3, 7 and 11 of this publication), along with time series data from 2013/14. Regional and national comparisons are also provided.

This statistical report presents a range of information on obesity, physical activity and diet, drawn together from a variety of sources. The topics covered include: Overweight and obesity prevalence among adults and children Physical activity levels among adults and children Trends in purchases and consumption of food and drink and energy intake Health outcomes of being overweight or obese. This report contains seven chapters which consist of the following: Chapter 1: Introduction; this summarises government policies, targets and outcome indicators in this area, as well as providing sources of further information and links to relevant documents. Chapters 2 to 6 cover obesity, physical activity and diet and provides an overview of the key findings from these sources, whilst maintaining useful links to each section of these reports. Chapter 7: Health Outcomes; presents a range of information about the health outcomes of being obese or overweight which includes information on health risks, hospital admissions and prescription drugs used for treatment of obesity. Figures presented in this report have been obtained from a number of sources and presented in a user-friendly format. Some of the data contained in the chapter have been published previously by the Health and Social Care Information Centre (HSCIC). Previously unpublished figures on obesity-related Finished Hospital Episodes and Finished Consultant Episodes for 2012-13 are presented using data from the HSCIC's Hospital Episode Statistics as well as data from the Prescribing Unit at the HSCIC on prescription items dispensed for treatment of obesity.

Labour market activity by nationality, country of birth and age, UK, published quarterly, non-seasonally adjusted. Labour Force Survey. These are official statistics in development.

% of physically active and inactive adults - active adults. The provider of data for this indicator is Public Health England based on Active Lives (self-report survey) and Sport England. This indicator measures the number of respondents aged 19 and over, with valid responses to questions on physical activity, doing at least 150 moderate intensity equivalent (MIE) minutes physical activity per week in bouts of 10 minutes or more in the previous 28 days expressed as a percentage of the total number of respondents aged 19 and over. *This indicator has been discontinued

This is the estimated percentage of adults aged 16 and over in the local area who are inactive. These estimates include the activities of walking, cycling, dance, fitness and sporting activities, but exclude gardening which is outside of Sport England's remit. Office for Health Improvement and Disparities (OHID) publish physical activity data for adults aged 19+ that includes gardening. Activity is counted in moderate intensity equivalent minutes whereby each 'moderate' minute counts as one minute and each 'vigorous' minute counts as two moderate minutes. Depending on the number of minutes of moderate intensity equivalent (MIE) physical activity, people are described as being:

Inactive - Doing less than 30 minutes a week Fairly Active - Doing 30-149 minutes a week Active - Doing at least 150 minutes a week

Moderate activity is defined as where you raise your heart rate and feel a little out of breath. Vigorous activity is where you are breathing hard and fast and your heart rate has increased significantly (you will not be able to say more than a few words without pausing for breath). When making comparisons between figures, some differences seen may not be significant differences and so a degree of caution should be made before making conclusions. The survey was adapted during the COVID-19 pandemic. The survey sample is randomly selected from the Royal Mail’s Postal Address File ensuring a very high coverage of private residential addresses. The target sample size for each English local authority (excluding the City of London and Isles of Scilly) is 500 returns. Data may be suppressed for an area where the threshold of 30 is not reached. Population totals are created using Office for National Statistics (ONS) mid-year population estimates. Data is sourced from the adult Active Lives November to November survey.

Data is Powered by LG Inform Plus and automatically checked for new data on the 3rd of each month.

Data on the characteristics of those who are economically inactive because of long-term sickness from 2019 to 2022, including main health condition, age and sex. Data on flows to and from economic inactivity because of long-term sickness from 2021 to 2022. Data from the Labour Force Survey (LFS) and Annual Population Survey (APS).

Inactivity by age and sex for UK regions and countries, rolling three-monthly figures published monthly, not seasonally adjusted. Labour Force Survey.

Percentage of children aged 5-16 that meet the UK Chief Medical Officers' (CMOs') recommendations for physical activity (an average of at least 60 minutes moderate-vigorous intensity activity per day across the week). Weighted number of respondents reporting participation in sport and physical activity for at least 420 minutes in the last 7 days. Data is collected between September and July (term time only). Where a numerator is less than 30 for a Local Authority area, results are not presented. The values are calculated from a self-report survey, which is subjective and is influenced by the respondent's ability to recall and assess their physical activity levels. Self-reported data may also be affected by respondent desire to confirm to expectations and social norms (e.g. smoking under-estimated and PA over-estimated). However, although this might affect the absolute values, this should not affect comparisons if the bias is consistent across populations. Although a sampling framework has been developed, the selection of schools is carried out by County Sports Partnerships, who contact the schools and encourage them to take part. As not all schools are surveyed, there is the possibility that only those schools with a strong commitment to physical activity take part in the survey.

Data is Powered by LG Inform Plus and automatically checked for new data on the 3rd of each month.

Economic inactivity (aged 16 to 64 years ) by reason (seasonally adjusted). These estimates are sourced from the Labour Force Survey, a survey of households. These are official statistics in development.

The physical activity data tool brings together physical activity data at local level for England.

The tool presents data on physical activities including walking and cycling, as well as information on related risk factors and conditions such as obesity and diabetes.

The aim of the tool is to help promote physical activity, develop understanding and support the benchmarking, commissioning and improvement of services locally.

This update includes two new indicators:

• percentage of physically active adults
• percentage of physically inactive adults

These indicators use a new source of data and definition to currently published physical activity indicators.

View the https://fingertips.phe.org.uk/profile/physical-activity">physical activity data tool

In the third quarter of 2025, an estimated 2.8 million people were economically inactive due to being on long-term sickness leave in the UK, slightly down from a peak of over 2.84 million people in the fourth quarter of 2023. This figure has been rising considerably since 2019, when there were just over two million people economically inactive for this reason. Since the third quarter of 2021, long-term and temporary sickness has been the main reason that people were economically inactive, accounting for 32.1 percent of economic inactivity in the fourth quarter of 2024. What is driving the increase in long-term sickness? It is unclear if there are any specific reasons for the continued growth of long-term sickness in the UK. As of 2022, some of the most common health conditions cited as the reason for long-term sickness were to do with mental health issues, with 313,00 suffering from mental illness, and a further 282,000 for depression-related illness. It is also likely that the COVID-19 pandemic caused an impact, with around 1.8 million people in April 2022 reporting an experience of Long Covid. In general, while the majority of people on long-term sick leave are over the age of 50, there has been a noticeable increase in those aged under 35 being off on long-term sickness. Between 2019 and 2022, the number of those aged between 16 and 34 on long-term sickness increased by 140,000, compared with just 32,000 for those aged between 35 and 49. UK labor market set to continue cooling in 2025? In 2022, the UK labor market was slightly more weighted in favor of workers and people looking for work than usual. Unemployment fell to historical levels, while job vacancies reached a peak of more than 1.3 million in May. Wage growth also remained strong during this period, although as this occurred at a time of high inflation, wages fell in real terms for a long period between November 2021 and June 2023. Although the job market continued to show signs of resilience, for some time, there are signs this is now changing. In December 2024, the UK unemployment rate was 4.4 percent, a joint post-pandemic high, while in the same month job vacancies fell to their lowest level since May 2021.

The HSCIC will be changing future publication dates for the four compendia reports which cover smoking, alcohol, drugs and obesity. The new dates for these reports will be approximately: Smoking - will move from end August to end May. Alcohol - will move from end May to end June. Drugs - will move from end November to end March. Obesity - will stay at end Feb (but 3rd March for 2015). One advantage of this change is that the Hospital Admissions data used in the Drugs compendia will now be able to use final data instead of provisional. A consequence is there will be no drugs compendia in 2015 with the next report being in March 2016. However, all the other data used in the report will be available from the sources where it is initially published. If you have any concerns over these changes then please send an email by 27 February 2015 to enquiries@hscic.gov.uk setting out your concerns. This statistical report presents a range of information on obesity, physical activity and diet, drawn together from a variety of sources. The topics covered include: - Overweight and obesity prevalence among adults and children - Physical activity levels among adults and children - Trends in purchases and consumption of food and drink and energy intake - Health outcomes of being overweight or obese. This report contains seven chapters which consist of the following: - Chapter 1: Introduction; this summarises government policies, targets and outcome indicators in this area, as well as providing sources of further information and links to relevant documents. - Chapters 2 to 6 cover obesity, physical activity and diet and provides an overview of the key findings from these sources, whilst maintaining useful links to each section of these reports. - Chapter 7: Health Outcomes; presents a range of information about the health outcomes of being obese or overweight which includes information on health risks, hospital admissions and prescription drugs used for treatment of obesity. - Figures presented in this report have been obtained from a number of sources and presented in a user-friendly format. Some of the data contained in the chapter have been published previously by the Health and Social Care Information Centre (HSCIC). Previously unpublished figures on obesity-related Finished Hospital Episodes and Finished Consultant Episodes for 2012-13 are presented using data from the HSCIC's Hospital Episode Statistics as well as data from the Prescribing Unit at the HSCIC on prescription items dispensed for treatment of obesity.

As of the third quarter of 2025, approximately 33.2 percent of people who were economically inactive in the United Kingdom were on long-term or temporary sick leave, with a further 25.4 percent of economically inactive people being students.

SUMMARYTo be viewed in combination with the ‘Levels of obesity, inactivity and associated illnesses: Summary (England)’ dataset.This dataset shows where there was no data* relating to one of more of the following factors:Obesity/inactivity-related illnesses (recorded at the GP practice catchment area level*)Adult obesity (recorded at the GP practice catchment area level*)Inactivity in children (recorded at the district level)Excess weight in children (recorded at the Middle Layer Super Output Area level)* GPs do not have catchments that are mutually exclusive from each other: they overlap, with some geographic areas being covered by 30+ practices.GP data for the financial year 1st April 2018 – 31st March 2019 was used in preference to data for the financial year 1st April 2019 – 31st March 2020, as the onset of the COVID19 pandemic during the latter year could have affected the reporting of medical statistics by GPs. However, for 53 GPs (out of 7670) that did not submit data in 2018/19, data from 2019/20 was used instead. This dataset identifies areas where data from 2019/20 was used, where one or more GPs did not submit data in either year (this could be because there are rural areas that aren’t officially covered by any GP practices), or where there were large discrepancies between the 2018/19 and 2019/20 data (differences in statistics that were > mean +/- 1 St.Dev.), which suggests erroneous data in one of those years (it was not feasible for this study to investigate this further), and thus where data should be interpreted with caution.Results of the ‘Levels of obesity, inactivity and associated illnesses: Summary (England)’ analysis in these areas should be interpreted with caution, particularly if the levels of obesity, inactivity and associated illnesses appear to be significantly lower than in their immediate surrounding areas.Really small areas with ‘missing’ data were deleted, where it was deemed that missing data will not have impacted the overall analysis (i.e. where GP data was missing from really small countryside areas where no people live).See also Health and wellbeing statistics (GP-level, England): Missing data and potential outliers dataDATA SOURCESThis dataset was produced using:- Quality and Outcomes Framework data: Copyright © 2020, Health and Social Care Information Centre. The Health and Social Care Information Centre is a non-departmental body created by statute, also known as NHS Digital.- National Child Measurement Programme: Copyright © 2020, Health and Social Care Information Centre. The Health and Social Care Information Centre is a non-departmental body created by statute, also known as NHS Digital. - Active Lives Survey 2019: Sport and Physical Activity Levels amongst children and young people in school years 1-11 (aged 5-16). © Sport England 2020.- Active Lives Survey 2019: Sport and Physical Activity Levels amongst adults aged 16+. © Sport England 2020.- GP Catchment Outlines. Copyright © 2020, Health and Social Care Information Centre. The Health and Social Care Information Centre is a non-departmental body created by statute, also known as NHS Digital. Data was cleaned by Ribble Rivers Trust before use.- Administrative boundaries: Boundary-LineTM: Contains Ordnance Survey data © Crown copyright and database right 2021. Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0.- MSOA boundaries: © Office for National Statistics licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. Contains OS data © Crown copyright and database right 2021.COPYRIGHT NOTICEThe reproduction of this data must be accompanied by the following statement:© Ribble Rivers Trust 2021. Analysis carried out using data that is: Copyright © 2020, Health and Social Care Information Centre. The Health and Social Care Information Centre is a non-departmental body created by statute, also known as NHS Digital; © Sport England 2020; © Office for National Statistics licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. Contains Ordnance Survey data © Crown copyright and database right 2021. Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0.CaBA HEALTH & WELLBEING EVIDENCE BASEThis dataset forms part of the wider CaBA Health and Wellbeing Evidence Base.

Adults participating in recommended levels of physical activity -participation in moderate intensity sport and active recreation on 20 or more days in the previous 4 weeks, (averaging 5 or more times per week). Source: Sport England Publisher: Association of Public Health Observatories (APHO) Geographies: Local Authority District (LAD), County/Unitary Authority, Government Office Region (GOR), National Geographic coverage: England Time coverage: 2005/06 Type of data: Survey data

SUMMARYThis analysis, designed and executed by Ribble Rivers Trust, identifies areas across England with the greatest levels of physical and mental illnesses that are linked with obesity and inactivity. Please read the below information to gain a full understanding of what the data shows and how it should be interpreted.ANALYSIS METHODOLOGYThe analysis was carried out using Quality and Outcomes Framework (QOF) data, derived from NHS Digital, relating to:- Asthma (in persons of all ages)- Cancer (in persons of all ages)- Chronic kidney disease (in adults aged 18+)- Coronary heart disease (in persons of all ages)- Depression (in adults aged 18+)- Diabetes mellitus (in persons aged 17+)- Hypertension (in persons of all ages)- Stroke and transient ischaemic attack (in persons of all ages)This information was recorded at the GP practice level. However, GP catchment areas are not mutually exclusive: they overlap, with some areas covered by 30+ GP practices. Therefore, to increase the clarity and usability of the data, the GP-level statistics were converted into statistics based on Middle Layer Super Output Area (MSOA) census boundaries.For each of the above illnesses, the percentage of each MSOA’s population with that illness was estimated. This was achieved by calculating a weighted average based on:- The percentage of the MSOA area that was covered by each GP practice’s catchment area- Of the GPs that covered part of that MSOA: the percentage of patients registered with each GP that have that illness The estimated percentage of each MSOA’s population with each illness was then combined with Office for National Statistics Mid-Year Population Estimates (2019) data for MSOAs, to estimate the number of people in each MSOA with each illness, within the relevant age range.For each illness, each MSOA was assigned a relative score between 1 and 0 (1 = worst, 0 = best) based on:A) the PERCENTAGE of the population within that MSOA who are estimated to have that illnessB) the NUMBER of people within that MSOA who are estimated to have that illnessAn average of scores A & B was taken, and converted to a relative score between 1 and 0 (1= worst, 0 = best). The closer to 1 the score, the greater both the number and percentage of the population in the MSOA predicted to have that illness, compared to other MSOAs. In other words, those are areas where a large number of people are predicted to suffer from an illness, and where those people make up a large percentage of the population, indicating there is a real issue with that illness within the population and the investment of resources to address that issue could have the greatest benefits.The scores for each of the 8 illnesses were added together then converted to a relative score between 1 – 0 (1 = worst, 0 = best), to give an overall score for each MSOA: a score close to 1 would indicate that an area has high predicted levels of all obesity/inactivity-related illnesses, and these are areas where the local population could benefit the most from interventions to address those illnesses. A score close to 0 would indicate very low predicted levels of obesity/inactivity-related illnesses and therefore interventions might not be required.LIMITATIONS1. GPs do not have catchments that are mutually exclusive from each other: they overlap, with some geographic areas being covered by 30+ practices. This dataset should be viewed in combination with the ‘Health and wellbeing statistics (GP-level, England): Missing data and potential outliers’ dataset to identify where there are areas that are covered by multiple GP practices but at least one of those GP practices did not provide data. Results of the analysis in these areas should be interpreted with caution, particularly if the levels of obesity/inactivity-related illnesses appear to be significantly lower than the immediate surrounding areas.2. GP data for the financial year 1st April 2018 – 31st March 2019 was used in preference to data for the financial year 1st April 2019 – 31st March 2020, as the onset of the COVID19 pandemic during the latter year could have affected the reporting of medical statistics by GPs. However, for 53 GPs (out of 7670) that did not submit data in 2018/19, data from 2019/20 was used instead. Note also that some GPs (997 out of 7670) did not submit data in either year. This dataset should be viewed in conjunction with the ‘Health and wellbeing statistics (GP-level, England): Missing data and potential outliers’ dataset, to determine areas where data from 2019/20 was used, where one or more GPs did not submit data in either year, or where there were large discrepancies between the 2018/19 and 2019/20 data (differences in statistics that were > mean +/- 1 St.Dev.), which suggests erroneous data in one of those years (it was not feasible for this study to investigate this further), and thus where data should be interpreted with caution. Note also that there are some rural areas (with little or no population) that do not officially fall into any GP catchment area (although this will not affect the results of this analysis if there are no people living in those areas).3. Although all of the obesity/inactivity-related illnesses listed can be caused or exacerbated by inactivity and obesity, it was not possible to distinguish from the data the cause of the illnesses in patients: obesity and inactivity are highly unlikely to be the cause of all cases of each illness. By combining the data with data relating to levels of obesity and inactivity in adults and children (see the ‘Levels of obesity, inactivity and associated illnesses: Summary (England)’ dataset), we can identify where obesity/inactivity could be a contributing factor, and where interventions to reduce obesity and increase activity could be most beneficial for the health of the local population.4. It was not feasible to incorporate ultra-fine-scale geographic distribution of populations that are registered with each GP practice or who live within each MSOA. Populations might be concentrated in certain areas of a GP practice’s catchment area or MSOA and relatively sparse in other areas. Therefore, the dataset should be used to identify general areas where there are high levels of obesity/inactivity-related illnesses, rather than interpreting the boundaries between areas as ‘hard’ boundaries that mark definite divisions between areas with differing levels of these illnesses. TO BE VIEWED IN COMBINATION WITH:This dataset should be viewed alongside the following datasets, which highlight areas of missing data and potential outliers in the data:- Health and wellbeing statistics (GP-level, England): Missing data and potential outliersDOWNLOADING THIS DATATo access this data on your desktop GIS, download the ‘Levels of obesity, inactivity and associated illnesses: Summary (England)’ dataset.DATA SOURCESThis dataset was produced using:Quality and Outcomes Framework data: Copyright © 2020, Health and Social Care Information Centre. The Health and Social Care Information Centre is a non-departmental body created by statute, also known as NHS Digital.GP Catchment Outlines. Copyright © 2020, Health and Social Care Information Centre. The Health and Social Care Information Centre is a non-departmental body created by statute, also known as NHS Digital. Data was cleaned by Ribble Rivers Trust before use.COPYRIGHT NOTICEThe reproduction of this data must be accompanied by the following statement:© Ribble Rivers Trust 2021. Analysis carried out using data that is: Copyright © 2020, Health and Social Care Information Centre. The Health and Social Care Information Centre is a non-departmental body created by statute, also known as NHS Digital.CaBA HEALTH & WELLBEING EVIDENCE BASEThis dataset forms part of the wider CaBA Health and Wellbeing Evidence Base.

Tables describing the international trends and logistic regression modelling results, that helps to explain the statistical significance of a range of factors on the likelihood of inactivity.