A QUARTER of children in Gwent are overweight or obese by the time they start school, figures have shown.

They also show that one in every ten school children is already obese at four-years-old, a rate higher than any English region.

Blaenau Gwent is the county with the most overweight or obese children starting school, with 28.1 per cent four or five-year-olds fitting into that category.

Caerphilly and Torfaen – at 27.1 per cent and 26.8 per cent respectively – are both above the Welsh national average of 26.5 per cent. Newport and Monmouthshire sneak below that, at 26 per cent and 23.3 per cent respectively.

Nationally Monmouthshire is the third lowest ranked county for child obesity levels, above only Cardiff and the Vale of Glamorgan.

A report that will be seen by Monmouthshire council children and young people's select committee on Thursday, authored by the Aneurin Bevan Health Board’s principal public health specialist Jonathan West, shows that the likelihood of a child or adult being obese increases significantly when they grow up in a deprived area.

The statistics are included in the most reliable data available for childhood obesity in Wales, the Child Measurement Programme (CMP) Wales.

There are an estimated 37,000 children – between birth and 18-years-old – in Gwent who are obese or overweight, 19,400 of whom are obese.

And in Monmouthshire it is estimated nearly 2,900 children are obese and 5,400 children are overweight.

Fit for Future Generations: A childhood obesity strategy for Gwent states: “The economic consequences are staggering. Obese individuals have lower employment rates, lower productivity with more sick days, and people with obesity earn considerably less.

“The health and social care budgets bear the brunt of these costs through increased dependence, packages of care and equipment much of which is avoidable and can be delayed, particularly for future generations if we coordinate effective action.”

The report finds in Torfaen the likelihood of an adult being obese increased by 50 per cent in just ten years. An extra one in ten people were obese there in 2013 compared to 2003.

The report suggests measures including promoting healthy eating and encouraging active recreation for families.