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Obesity: children's data

The Scottish Health Survey (SHeS) provides estimates of prevalence of obesity in children, aged 2-15 years, in Scotland. A brief overview of the survey findings is provided below and in Chart 1. More detailed findings are available from the 2008 Scottish Health Survey. In SHeS, a child is classified as obese if his/her BMI fell in the highest five per cent of values for boys or girls of their age based on the 1990 UK BMI reference data (i.e. above the 95th percentile). More information on the measurement of obesity is available here

In 2008, of a total child sample of 1750, 13% of girls and 17% of boys, aged 2 to 15, were considered obese (chart 1)
Between 1998 and 2008, there was a small decrease in obesity prevalence among girls, from 14.2% in 1998 to 13.2% in 2008 (chart 1).
Information on obesity prevalence amongst children aged 2-6yrs, 7-11yrs and 12-15yrs is available from the 2008 SHeS

Information on levels of obesity among primary 1 aged schoolchildren (between 4-6 yrs of age) is also routinely collected through the Child Health Systems Programme (CHSP), from nearly all NHS Boards in Scotland (with the exception of Greater Glasgow, Highland, Orkney and Shetland NHS boards). In 2007/08 (the latest figures available), 27 000 primary 1 schoolchildren (approximately 51% of all P1 children in Scotland) provided height and weight measurements to CHSP

Chart 2 shows the percentage of primary 1 school children who were obese for the years 2000/01 to 2007/08 (please note that 2007/08 figures are provisional)

Although levels of obesity among P1 boys decreased slightly from 2006/07 (9.0%) to 2007/08 (8.2%), overall, levels remain higher than that recorded for P1 boys in 2000/01 (7.9%)
7.6% of P1 girls were considered obese in 2007/08, lower than the figure recorded in 2000/01 (8.2%)

Further detailed information on obesity by gender, participating NHS Board, local authority and community health partnership is also available on the ISD childhood obesity webpages.

Please note: If you require the most up-to-date data available, please check the data sources directly as new data may have been published since these data pages were last updated. Although we endeavour to ensure that the data pages are kept up-to-date, there may be a time lag between new data being published and the relevant ScotPHO web pages being updated.