Obesity in Portsmouth school children has increased, new figures show

New figures from NHS Digital showed in Portsmouth children in Year 6 classed as overweight went from 35.9 per cent in 2016/17 to 36.2 per cent in 2017/18.

The data is broken down as obese and severely obese and the severely obese figures for youngsters in Year 6 had a higher increase from 4.5 per cent to 5.6 per cent.

For children in reception, there was a small increase in the number considered overweight. It went from 24.2 per cent to 24.5 per cent.

However, for the area covered by Hampshire County Council, the percentage of overweight children in reception decreased.

It went from 23 per cent in 2016/17 to 22.4 per cent for the following year.

But, like Portsmouth, the county saw an increase in overweight pupils in Year 6. The figure went from 29.4 per cent to 30.6 per cent.

Nationally, there was a very small increase from in Year 6 schoolchildren from 20 per cent in 2016/17 to 20.1 per cent in 2017/18.