Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask His Majesty's Government whether comparative data is kept on the average height and/or weight of children aged 5 in the UK as compared to other countries.

The information requested is not held from other countries. Height and weight measurements are collected in England from approximately 500,000 children per year in reception year, aged four to five years old, as part of the National Child Measurement Programme. The collection started in 2006/07 and the latest available data is for 2021/22. Additionally, measured height and weight of children has been collected in the Health Survey for England for 1995 to 2019.

Data is collected in Scotland and Wales in both an annual child measurement programme and annual health survey, and in the health survey Northern Ireland. However, no data is published for height and weight that is comparable to the data published for England.