The childhood obesity epidemic shows no signs of slowing as new Government data reveals reception-aged kids in Britain are getting fatter.
Figures obtained by NHS Digital reveal that 22.6 per cent of youngsters aged around five and in the very first year of school are overweight or obese.
It is a jump on the 22.1 per cent recorded in 2015/16, and is slowly creeping towards the record high set a decade ago (22.9 per cent).
The data also highlighted a staggering North-South divide, with regions traditionally regarded as the most ‘deprived’ having almost double the prevalence of childhood obesity.
Data from the National Child Measurement Programme for England showed 31.5 per cent of reception-aged children were overweight or obese in Barrow-in-Furness.
However, at the other end of the scale in Waverley in Surrey, just 14.7 per cent of four and five year olds were registered under either fat bracket.
Similar concerns were raised for children in year 6, who were also measured as part of the statistics. Some 34.2 per cent of kids aged 10 or 11 were deemed overweight or obese.
Experts have slammed the ‘devastating’ statistics, warning children from deprived backgrounds have the ‘odds stacked against them’.
