Excess weight in both children and adults is a major public health concern. Excess weight in childhood is potentially predictive of adult obesity and elevates risks of developing high blood pressure, high cholesterol, type 2 diabetes and various other long term health conditions that can pervade into adulthood.
First established in 2006, the National Child Measurement Programme (NCMP) annually measures the height and weight of over a million children aged 4-5 years (reception year) and 10-11 years (year 6) within mainstream state-maintained schools in England. The aim of this is to provide an assessment of the proportion of children of primary school age who are either obese or overweight. Children are classified as overweight (including obese) if their BMI is on or above the 85th centile of the British 1990 growth reference (UK90) according to age and sex.
'The NCMP: Comparative Data for Wiltshire' report (that can be accessed on this page), provides summary analysis of levels of excess weight (combining both obese and overweight categories) amongst children of primary school age in Wiltshire in terms of gender, deprivation and geography (by Wiltshire community area). The NCMP data presented here covers the three financial years 2018/19, 2021/22 and 2022/23. Analysis is provided by individual school year and regional and national comparative data has also been included by way of additional context. The report can be downloaded from the right of the screen.