A new study analyzing NHS England electronic health records from 2019 to 2025 found that obesity rates have increased across the country, with significant disparities between regions and demographic groups, according to findings released on June 24. The research covered nearly 55 million adults and examined how new cases of obesity and overall prevalence differ by sex, age, socioeconomic status, ethnicity, and geographical region.
Robert Fletcher of the University of Cambridge, Health Data Research UK and The George Institute, who co-led the study, said, "Levels of obesity in England have worsened since the pandemic, with nearly one in three people now affected. We're also seeing large disparities across the country: the percentage of adults affected by obesity in northeast England is six times higher than in central London. Differences on this scale are rarely seen in other areas of public health. The rise in new cases among young adults of childbearing age is especially concerning. Beyond the implications for their own long-term health, obesity is associated with infertility, adverse pregnancy outcomes, and child obesity, which may perpetuate intergenerational cycles of health inequality."
The study reported a 4% overall increase in new cases of obesity by 2025 compared to before the COVID-19 pandemic. Young adults experienced the largest increases; rates rose by almost 20% among those aged 30-39 and by 16% for those aged 20-29. In contrast, rates fell among adults aged 60-79.
Socioeconomic deprivation was linked to higher risk: over the study period, individuals facing greater deprivation had a rate of new obesity cases that was 35% higher than those with less deprivation. For women facing high deprivation levels this figure rose to a difference of 54%, while Asian women saw a disparity as high as 94%. Ethnicity compounded these differences; for example, prevalence ranged from just under four percent among affluent White men aged eighteen to nineteen years old up to sixty-six percent among socioeconomically deprived Black women aged sixty to sixty-nine years old.
Large regional differences were also observed: some areas in northeast England had an adult obesity prevalence rate (48%) nearly six times greater than that found in affluent parts of central London (8.5%). Areas with lower GDP per capita saw steeper increases over time.
Naveed Sattar from the University of Glasgow said, "Obesity is not primarily about will power. These new powerful data indicate that those most at risk frequently reside in the most obesogenic environments and likely have the least agency to withstand such environments... Failure to act will drive further rises in multimorbidity and human suffering..." Angela Wood from University of Cambridge added, "By analyzing electronic health records from the entire adult population... we have generated comprehensive evidence on how obesity risk and burden are increasingly diverging across multiple dimensions... These findings underscore... secure access to whole-population health data ...to address widening health inequalities."
