Britain's obesity hotspots named as national waistline grows

Britain’s obesity hotspots have been identified, with Paulsgrove East in Portsmouth registering the highest share of adults with obesity ahead of the rest of the country, according to estimates from the House of Commons Library (HoCL). The area shows about 27.7% of adults with a body mass index at or above 30, the single highest figure among roughly 7,265 micro-areas across England, each housing around 8,000 residents. In effect, small urban pockets can exhibit obesity rates rivaling those seen in much larger areas.

The estimates, which break the country into MSOAs — small statistical zones typically built around a few streets — also show that in 296 MSOAs, one in five residents are obese. Behind Portsmouth’s Paulsgrove East, Moorends in Doncaster records 27.2% and Bridlington Hilderthorpe in the East Riding of Yorkshire has 24.8%. At the opposite end of the spectrum, Fitzrovia East in London’s Camden borough posted the lowest rate at 3.6%, with Clifton East in Bristol and Leeds City Centre each at 3.8%.

The HoCL’s estimates are based on GP practices and reflect the percentage of patients aged 18 and over with a BMI of 30 or above in the last year. The library cautions that this method underestimates the true prevalence of obesity, even as it provides a broad, comparable snapshot across neighborhoods. Official England-wide figures suggest that 28% of adults were obese in 2022, defined as a BMI over 30, with a further 36% classified as overweight. Rates have doubled since the early 1990s, underscoring a gradual, long-running trend rather than a single-year spike.

Experts have called for urgent, comprehensive action to address obesity, pointing to the prevalence of ultra-processed foods in modern diets and to broader structural factors that influence lifestyle choices. In recent weeks, researchers expanded the definition of obesity beyond BMI, proposing to include waist circumference and weight-to-height ratio. Under the revised rules, estimates could balloon Britain's obese population from roughly 13 million to nearly 21 million, reflecting a broader approach to identifying risk.

A raft of long-awaited anti-obesity measures began to take effect in October. New government laws ban buy-one-get-one-free deals on sweets, crisps, sugary drinks, and other snacks, as well as free refills of fizzy drinks in restaurants and cafés. Starting in January, a separate policy package will prohibit online advertising of unhealthy foods and drinks and tighten television advertising of such products before 9 p.m. Ministers say these steps are designed to curb Britain’s growing obesity crisis, which the NHS estimates costs about £6.5 billion a year and which is the second-biggest preventable cause of cancer in the country.

An analysis published last year found that the average obese patient costs the NHS at least £1,000 in healthcare expenditures per year, underscoring the broader financial pressure obesity places on the health service as demographic trends shift and new data broaden the definition of risk across populations.