The UK Government has announced that England is the fattest nation in Europe. While 23% of English adults are classified as obese, the figure for Germany is 12.9%, France 9.4%, Italy 8.5% and Spain is 13.1%. In 1995 about 9.9% of English children were obese, in 2004 the figure jumped to 14.3% – a rise of over 40%.

Although the number of people in England consuming five portions of fruit and/or vegetables per day is going up, it is doing so ever so slowly, says a report, called The Health Profile of England.

Public Health Minister, Caroline Flint, said that, by far, the greatest challenge facing the nation’s health at the moment is obesity. She added that obesity raises the risk of developing heart disease, many cancers, diabetes type 2, hypertension (high blood pressure) and stroke. Ms. Flint said only one fourth of Londoners and people from South East England consume the daily recommended five portions of fruit and/or vegetables each day – figures for Yorkshire and North East England are much lower.

Ms. Flint said “The rapid increase in child and adult obesity over the past decade is storing up very serious health problems for the future. Parents are not always embracing healthy eating and active lifestyles, as they are perceived to be too challenging. We want to support parents to make them feel more able to make the changes that are needed to make a big difference to their own and their children’s lives.”

However, despite this obesity increase, life expectancy in the UK continues to improve.

Some more facts:

— There is a north/south divide for female life expectancy at birth. Female life expectancy is significantly shorter from the Midlands northwards than in the regions of the south

— Life expectancy is two years shorter from men in the north, when compared to men in the south

— Deaths from cancer and all circulatory diseases for people under 75 years has fallen each year since the middle 1990s

— Road deaths and serious injuries, calculated in relation to estimated traffic flow, fell by 40% from 1995 to 2005

— Double the percentage of men in the North East assess their health as ‘not good’ when compared to men in the South East

— The average 5-year-old in the North West, Yorkshire and Humber has two decayed teeth, compared to one decayed tooth in the South East and West Midlands

Download Health profile of England – preliminaries (PDF, 271K)
Download Health profile of England – section 1 (PDF, 57K)
Download Health profile of England – section 2 (PDF, 571K)
Download Health profile of England – section 3 (PDF, 2086K)
Download Health profile of England – section 4 (PDF, 62K)
Download Health profile of England – appendices (PDF, 130K)
Download Health profile of England – complete document (PDF, 3051K)

Written by: Christian Nordqvist
Editor: Medical News Today