Hospital admissions for obesity in England 2002-2020, by gender

Since 2002 there has been a significant increase in the number of hospital admissions for obesity in England. In 2019/20, there were 8,084 hospital admissions of women with a primary diagnosis of obesity and 2,694 hospital admissions for men, although both genders had their peak number of admissions in 2011/12. The highest number of admissions due to obesity were found in the age group 45 to 54 years, with over 3.1 thousand admissions.

Obesity prevalence in England

The prevalence of obesity among adults in England has been creeping upwards since 2000. In that year, 21 percent of men and women were classed as obese in England. However, by 2019 this share had increased to 29 percent for women and 27 percent of men.

Situation north of the border

In Scotland in 2020, the mean Body Mass Index of women was 27.8 and for men it was 27.5. A BMI of over 25 is classed as overweight. The share of adults classed as obese or morbidly obese in Scotland in this year was 25 percent for women and 24 percent for men.