THE proportion of final year primary school children in the region who were either overweight or obese has broken through the 40 per cent mark in at least one city.

New figures from the Health and Social Care Information Centre identified Newcastle as the only place in the North-East where 40.1 per cent of final year primary school children were either overweight or obese.

Most of the rest of the North-East had percentages of overweight or obese final year primary children above the national average for England of 33.9 per cent.

The North-East as a whole registered 37 per cent of youngsters in this year group as overweight or obese.

Darlington (31.7 per cent) and Middlesbrough (33.5 per cent) came in under that figure.

Of Englands 10 strategic health authority areas, the North-East SHA area had the highest recorded prevalance of overweight or obese youngsters among reception year children (24.5 per cent) compared with the South East Coast, which had the lowest prevalence (20.7 per cent).

But London had the highest recorded prevalence of overweight or obese children among the final year group - with 37.5 per cent in this category.

The chance of being overweight or obese increased in relation to deprivation levels, with children in the 10 per cent most deprived areas more likely to be obese than the ten per cent in the least deprived areas.

In North Yorkshire 29 per cent of final year pupils were overweight or obese.

HSCIC chief executive Tim Straughan said: "The figures show that the proportion of Year Six children who are either overweight or obese appears to be still increasing slightly.

"This differs from the picture for Reception Year children for whom prevalence of obesity remains level.