The UK’s obesity and overweight crisis is now costing £126bn annually, far higher than previous estimates, new analysis has found.
The total includes £12.6bn in NHS treatment, £71.4bn in years lived in poor health, and £31bn in economic losses due to reduced productivity and workforce participation.
Without urgent policy action, the cost could rise to £150bn a year by 2035, posing a growing threat to public health and economic stability as the population continues to age.
The figures come from Frontier Economics, commissioned by the Nesta thinktank, and show that 64 per cent of adults in the UK are now overweight or obese. The cost exceeds what is spent annually on policing across all four UK nations and is equivalent to a 3p cut in income tax, the researchers said.
Tim Leunig, Nesta’s chief economist, said: “Obesity has doubled since the 90s and causes a host of terrible health problems, like type 2 diabetes and cancer.
“This means obesity makes people less effective at work, forces them to take time off to manage illness or causes them to leave the workforce entirely owing to ill health.”
The new estimate includes, for the first time, costs linked to people who are overweight as well as obese.
Earlier projections by Frontier put the figure at £58bn in 2022 and £98bn in 2023, in work conducted for the Tony Blair Institute.
The report comes as ministers grapple with a rise in long-term sickness.
Office for National Statistics data shows that 2.8m people are now economically inactive due to illness – 700,000 more than when the Covid pandemic began.
Henry Dimbleby, co-founder of the Leon restaurant chain and author of a government-commissioned review of the food system, said: “We’ve created a food system that’s poisoning our population and bankrupting the state.
“This report shows that poor diet now costs the UK a shocking £126bn a year. That’s not a crisis. That’s a collapse.”
The annual economic breakdown includes £12.1bn from unemployment due to overweight and obesity, £10.5bn in unpaid care provided by family and friends, £9.7bn from lower workplace productivity, £8.3bn in sick days, £1.2bn in formal care services, and £700m in lost output from early deaths linked to excess weight.
Campaigners are calling for the sugar tax to be extended beyond fizzy drinks and for legal targets to reduce salt and sugar in foods, backed by financial penalties.
Kawther Hashem, head of research at Action on Sugar, described the figures as “staggering” and said voluntary industry action had failed.
Katharine Jenner, director of the Obesity Health Alliance, urged limits on sugar in baby and toddler food and an expansion of the sugar tax.
Nesta has recommended restrictions on unhealthy food advertising, front-of-pack nutrition labelling, and greater investment in weight-loss drugs to address the crisis.
Health secretary Wes Streeting said more people in England would be able to access NHS weight management services and weight-loss medications through the government’s upcoming 10-year NHS plan.
