Areas where up to HALF of children are ‘fat’ before they start secondary school MAPPED… so is yours one of them?

Almost half of children in parts of England are fat by the time they start secondary school, official figures revealed today.

Forty-seven per cent of Year 6 pupils in Knowsley, Merseyside, are classed as either overweight or obese — nearly twice the levels logged in leafy areas like Surrey and Richmond-upon-Thames. 

Nationally, the rate stands at over a third, despite having fallen slightly since Covid began.

Waistlines also shrunk among kids in reception, with the proportion of youngsters deemed too fat plunging from record highs seen in the first year of the pandemic.

Leading experts welcomed the falling trend, but warned there remains a ‘shocking divide’ between the richest and poorest children. 

Over a million kids had their height and weight measured under the National Child Measurement Programme (NCMP).

Among Year 6 pupils, national obesity prevalence fell from 23.4 per cent in 2021/22 to 22.7 per cent.

Meanwhile, the proportion of kids deemed either overweight or obese also dipped, from 37.8 per cent to 36.6. 

Both measures are above pre-pandemic levels. 

When broken down by local authorities, data showed 47.2 per cent of Year 6 pupils were either overweight or obese in Knowsley. 

This was followed by the London boroughs of Barking and Dagenham and Newham with a rate of 45.7 and 45.5 per cent, respectively.

Rates stood at 24.9 per cent in Surrey and 25.1 per cent in Richmond-upon-Thames. 

NHS Digital’s statistics also showed among children in reception, 9.2 per cent were considered obese in 2022/23 — down on the 10.1 per cent in the previous year. 

When the number of kids who are deemed overweight were also included, the share stood at 21.3 per cent.

This was down by 1 percentage point on the previous year. 

Almost a third of all reception-aged children (30.1 per cent) were considered fat in Knowsley, followed by Newcastle upon Tyne (27.5 per cent) and Blackpool (27 per cent). 

For comparison, just 14.4 per cent were overweight or obese in Wokingham. 

Katharine Jenner, director of The Obesity Health Alliance, said the small drop in childhood obesity and overweight figures was ‘welcome’ but labelled the deprivation gap ‘shocking’.

She told MailOnline: ‘All children have a right to grow up healthy, regardless of their circumstances and where they live. 

‘It is welcome that fewer children are starting primary school living with obesity compared to before the pandemic, but more children are still leaving primary school above a healthy weight than ever before. 

‘These new figures show a shocking divide remains between the haves and the have nots, with the number of children above a healthy weight still twice as high in the poorest areas compared to the richest.’

Tam Fry, chairman of the National Obesity Forum added: ‘Every report showing a decrease in childhood obesity is encouraging but two or three similar reports are needed before breaking out the champagne to celebrate a sustained decline.’

He told MailOnline: ‘Ironically it may well be that the cost of living crisis, with food becoming less available for tens of thousands of children, has much to do with the drop.’

David Fothergill, of the Local Government Association, meanwhile said: ‘We are encouraged to see a decline in the prevalence of overweight and obesity amongst children.

‘However, this data does show some areas for concern. 

‘Children living in the most deprived areas are more than twice as likely to be living with obesity than children in the least deprived areas.’

John Maingay, director of policy and public affairs at the British Heart Foundation, also added: ‘Today’s figures show that childhood obesity rates are still far too high despite some small improvements. 

‘Every child deserves to grow up in the best possible health, but children living in the poorest areas are twice as likely to be living with obesity. 

‘Children living with obesity are much more likely to live with obesity as adults, which means a greater risk of developing heart and circulatory diseases.

‘The Government needs to move fast and implement its delayed plans to restrict junk food marketing to children, and it needs to incentivise businesses to produce healthier foods.’

Childhood obesity has been a growing issue for years, with easy access to fast food, more screen time and sedentary lifestyles blamed for spiralling rates in the UK.

The NCMP, responsible for today’s data, was established in state-funded schools in England in 2006 and considered a key element of the Government’s war on childhood obesity. 

Among other measures it has taken to tackle the crisis include the soft drinks industry levy, creating clearer food labelling and introducing a plan to improve equal access and the quality of PE and sport in schools. 

The NCMP measures the height and weight of children which are then used to generate a Body Mass Index.

This is compared to a national scale to determine whether that child is underweight, normal, overweight or obese.

But earlier this year, researchers from Queen Mary University of London warned the programme may do more harm than good and potentially encourage eating disorders in kids.

Parents of skinny children have even complained about their kids wrongly being labelled fat. 

It comes as the World Health Organization earlier this year also revealed 37million children under the age of five are now overweight globally — four million more than at the turn of the century.

Australia ranked second in the table of 198 countries, with 21.8 per cent of children there classified as overweight.

Britain was 22nd (11.3 per cent), while the US claimed 52nd spot (7.9 per cent).

The WHO warned obesity globally is ‘moving in the wrong direction’ and shows ‘no immediate sign of reversion’.

Obesity doesn’t just expand waistlines but health care costs, with the NHS spending an estimated £6.1billion annually on treating weight-related disease like diabetes, heart disease and some cancers.

It is also believed to be responsible for more than 30,000 deaths each year in the UK, according to the British Heart Foundation.