Official Statistics

Changes in the weight status of children between the first and final years of primary school

A longitudinal cohort analysis of data from the National Child Measurement Programme (NCMP) covering children in England between reception (aged 4 to 5 years old) in academic year 2013 to 2014 and year 6 (aged 10 to 11 years old) in academic year 2019 to 2020.

Applies to England

Documents

Changes in the weight status of children between the first and final years of primary school

Data tables: changes in weight status between the first and final years of primary school

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Annex B: changes in the weight status of children in the final year of primary school from the first year of primary school

Annex B data tables: changes in weight status in the final year of primary school from the first year of primary school

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Annex C data tables: data comparison of matched and unmatched cohorts

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Details

This report examines how individual children’s body mass index (BMI) has changed between their measurements in reception at age 4 to 5 years and their measurements in year 6 at age 10 to 11 years.

Data is reported for children who are underweight, healthy weight, overweight, living with obesity (excluding severe obesity) and living with severe obesity. How children move between BMI weight categories in reception to year 6 is examined by sex, ethnic group, deprivation, and geographic region to see if the patterns differ within these groupings.

Updates to this page

Published 28 September 2022
Last updated 4 November 2022 + show all updates
  1. Data for additional ethnic groups has been added to the accompanying data tables.

  2. First published.

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