One in five Irish children currently present as overweight or obese.

Omissions

• The precise figure from official Irish health data is 17.7% (approximately 1 in 5.6), not exactly 20% (1 in 5).
• The data refers to primary school children specifically (ages 6-9 years in the COSI study), not all Irish children.
• The most recent available data period is 2022-2024 from COSI Round 6.

Sources

• PrimaryHealth Service Executive (HSE) Ireland17.7% of primary school children living with overweight and obesity; 'Most children in Ireland have a healthy weight (73%), a significant percentage (17.7%) live with overweight and obesity'
• PrimaryWorld Health Organization Europe - COSI ReportCOSI's sixth round (2022-2024) covering about 470,000 children aged 6-9 years across 37 countries including Ireland
• SecondaryTheJournal.ieOne in five children in Ireland is overweight or obese, according to data from the Childhood Obesity Surveillance Initiative. This rises to one in four when including those who are overweight.