Camden in north London has replaced Bury in Greater Manchester as the area of England with the most fast food outlets per population, new analysis suggests. Blackpool, Manchester and Tower Hamlets in London all remain near the top of the list, but Hartlepool and Darlington have dropped out of the top 10.
Almost every local authority area in England has seen the number of fast food shops per population either grow or stay broadly similar over recent years – an outcome health organisations described as “infuriating”. Only a handful of areas have seen a decline – while Wokingham in Berkshire has retained its status as the area with the fewest outlets per population.
The findings have been published by the Office for Health Improvement & Disparities (OHID) and cover a range of shops selling foods including, but not limited to, burgers, pizza, kebabs, chicken, Indian takeaways, Chinese takeaways, and fish & chips. Fast food is defined as meals that are “energy dense and available quickly, usually via a counter service, and for consumption on or off the premises.”
The figures show that in 2024, Camden had an estimated 417 fast food outlets per 100,000 population, up sharply from 205 per 100,000 in 2017, when the data was last compiled. Westminster, another London borough, ranked second with 248 per 100,000, followed by Blackpool (226), Southwark in London (205) and Manchester (183).
A Camden Council spokesperson said: “Camden is a world-famous tourist hotspot and we know many visitors will grab food on the go either before or after gigs, theatre and night time events, or before they get their train home after a day out in London.
“We support our residents to access healthy food and to follow a balanced diet, and there’s lots of community food projects and food growing initiatives in Camden helping with this.” PA news agency analysis of the OHID data shows Bury topped the list in 2017 with 256 outlets per 100,000 population, but dropped to 166 in 2024, ranking it in 10th place.
Hackney in London ranked 58th in 2017 with 107 outlets per 100,000, but in 2024 had climbed to ninth place, with 166 per 100,000. Also entering the top 10 is Liverpool, up from 20th in 2017 to seventh in 2024, with 175 per 100,000.
Heading in the other direction is Hartlepool, down steeply from fourth to 37th (138 per 100,000), and Darlington, dropping from fifth to 25th (145 per 100,000). Katharine Jenner, director of Obesity Health Alliance (OHA), said big fast food companies were “eroding healthy eating opportunities”.
She said: “The findings are infuriating – almost every local authority has seen the number of unhealthy food outlets per population either grow or remain largely unchanged in recent years. This is happening at a time when the food industry should be making healthy food more appealing and affordable, not actively working against it.
“Evidence-based measures incentivising companies to promote, advertise, and sell healthier food are supported by the public. We deserve better, and we can’t let the food industry continue to profit off our poor health. We can’t afford to wait any longer.”
The analysis also shows that fast food outlets per population in the most deprived areas of England are double the level in the least deprived areas, at 147 per 100,000 compared with 73 per 100,000. “On average, the local authorities with a higher deprivation score, which include several large city authorities, have a higher number of fast food outlets per 100,000 population,” the OHID said.
“Prevalence of obesity in England increases with increasing levels of deprivation and fruit and vegetable consumption decreases with increasing levels of deprivation.”
Across England as a whole, there were 116 fast food outlets per 100,000 population in 2024, up from 98 per 100,000 in 2017. The OHID said it had produced the figures to assess the exposure of residents to fast food outlets in their local authority area.
Local authorities have responsibility for neighbourhood planning and licencing of food premises, as well as responsibility for public health for their resident population. Some local authorities with larger numbers of fast food outlets per 100,000 resident population may be areas with a large non-resident workplace or visitor populations, the OHID notes.
In addition, some people are likely to travel in person to neighbouring areas to visit fast food outlets. As such, data showing the fast food outlets located in an area may underestimate the exposure to fast food for local residents.
Dr Jordan Beaumont, lecturer in food and nutrition at Sheffield Hallam University, said: “The new OHID data shows a concerning increase in the presence of fast food in our food environment.
“We know that exposure to fast food outlets increases the likelihood of consuming fast foods – those most exposed to fast food outlets are around 50% more likely to consume fast foods – but the relationship is complex. What is of particularly concern is the prevalence and density of fast food outlets is closely linked with level of deprivation, where areas experiencing higher levels of poverty – such as Camden and Bury – often have a higher number of fast food outlets.”
Dr Beaumont said attempts to limit exposure to fast foods, such as through school exclusion zones were having a positive impact on health of local communities, but there were added complexities due to outlets operating through the “virtual food environment”, such as through third-party online food delivery platforms and mobile applications.
Wokingham in Berkshire had just 39 fast food shops per 100,000 population in 2024, OHID data suggests. This is the lowest figure for any local authority in England and only slightly up on 37 per 100,000 in 2017.
The next lowest authority is Bracknell Forest, also in Berkshire, at 63 per 100,000, followed by Richmond-upon-Thames in London (65), Herefordshire (69) and Merton in south London (75).
Here is a breakdown, by local area, of the estimated number of fast food outlets per population in England in 2024.
The figures have been compiled by the PA news agency using data from the Office for Health Improvement & Disparities and are for upper-tier local authority areas.
The list has been ordered by the number of outlets per population in 2024, starting with the highest, and reads: name of local authority; fast food outlets per 100,000 population in 2024; fast food outlets (in brackets) per 100,000 population in 2017.
- Camden 417.4 (205.2)
- Westminster 248.2 (146.8)
- Blackpool 226.3 (230.1)
- Southwark 205.4 (110.5)
- Manchester 183.0 (144.9)
- Tower Hamlets 176.8 (149.6)
- Liverpool 175.1 (135.3)
- Tameside 170.5 (144.7)
- Hackney 166.0 (107.2)
- Bury 165.7 (256.4)
- Sunderland 163.0 (140.8)
- Blackburn with Darwen 161.3 (144.4)
- Lambeth 160.9 (115.8)
- Hull 158.9 (149.5)
- Brent 157.6 (99.3)
- Bolton 155.1 (131.9)
- Leicester 153.5 (137.1)
- North East Lincolnshire 153.5 (130.4)
- Rochdale 151.0 (132.3)
- Kirklees 150.7 (145.4)
- Portsmouth 149.3 (130.8)
- Wakefield 147.0 (138.5)
- Lewisham 146.3 (106.7)
- Trafford 145.3 (130.3)
- Darlington 144.7 (151.1)
- Stockport 143.6 (132.7)
- Stoke-on-Trent 142.5 (121.2)
- Calderdale 141.3 (139.3)
- Newcastle upon Tyne 140.7 (143.3)
- Gateshead 140.6 (138.0)
- Brighton & Hove 140.2 (126.7)
- Oldham 140.2 (124.4)
- Redcar & Cleveland 139.9 (119.5)
- Doncaster 139.7 (127.3)
- Islington 139.6 (116.5)
- Sheffield 139.2 (126.5)
- Hartlepool 138.4 (162.5)
- Reading 136.9 (116.7)
- Sandwell 136.1 (116.8)
- Birmingham 136.0 (79.1)
- Leeds 136.0 (123.6)
- Bradford 135.5 ( 142.5 )
- Nottingham 135.4 (135.2)
- Walsall 134.7 (109.5)
- Hammersmith & Fulham 134.3 (94.8)
- Dudley 134.1 (99.8)
- Lancashire 132.7 (120.6)
- Salford 132.3 (129.4)
- County Durham 132.3 (122.3)
- Wolverhampton 132.1 (117.0)
- Greenwich 131.9 (93.1)
- Newham 131.8 (95.5)
- Haringey 129.3 (79.8)
- Barking & Dagenham 129.1 (89.2)
- Torbay 129.0 (102.7)
- Luton 129.0 (95.1)
- Warrington 128.5 (99.5)
- Bristol 128.0 (115.1)
- Derby 127.6 (115.3)
- Redbridge 127.0 (69.9)
- Wirral 126.5 (106.2)
- Middlesbrough 126.4 (132.4)
- Thurrock 125.7 (92.4)
- Barnsley 125.6 (121.8)
- Milton Keynes 125.4 (95.8)
- Southampton 125.3 (95.4)
- Wigan 125.3 (112.6)
- Waltham Forest 125.0 (104.3)
- Westmorland & Furness 124.9 (111.4)
- Coventry 124.5 (109.4)
- Croydon 123.7 (107.9)
- North Lincolnshire 121.7 (100.2)
- Sutton 120.8 (89.8)
- South Tyneside 120.6 (113.0)
- Kingston upon Thames 120.3 (84.7)
- Southend-on-Sea 120.2 (110.8)
- Rotherham 119.5 (111.7)
- York 119.5 (109.6)
- Bournemouth, Christchurch & Poole 119.3 (108.9)
- Hounslow 118.0 (73.3)
- Sefton 117.1 (106.2)
- England 115.9 (98.3)
- Derbyshire 113.9 (101.2)
- Bexley 113.6 (85.9)
- Havering 113.4 (97.5)
- St. Helens 112.9 (106.0)
- Hillingdon 112.5 (91.2)
- Enfield 112.4 (83.2)
- Stockton-on-Tees 110.2 (102.0)
- Lincolnshire 109.6 (101.5)
- Cumberland 109.4 (100.6)
- Peterborough 109.3 (89.8)
- North Tyneside 109.1 (99.8)
- Norfolk 108.9 (96.7)
- North Yorkshire 108.5 (99.8)
- East Riding of Yorkshire 106.2 (94.1)
- Northumberland 104.6 (103.6)
- Ealing 104.2 (77.2)
- Bedford 103.2 (93.4)
- Windsor & Maidenhead 103.1 (75.3)
- Dorset 102.6 (80.1)
- Medway 102.2 (86.1)
- Isle of Wight 101.5 (97.7)
- Wandsworth 100.8 (85.6)
- Cheshire West & Chester 100.3 (86.7)
- Slough 100.2 (82.8)
- Kent 99.9 (82.8)
- Telford & Wrekin 99.0 (89.0)
- Cornwall & Isles of Scilly 98.7 (88.5)
- Nottinghamshire 98.6 (88.0)
- Hertfordshire 98.6 (78.7)
- Worcestershire 98.2 (81.8)
- Suffolk 98.0 (86.8)
- Staffordshire 97.8 (92.3)
- Essex 97.7 (78.1)
- Harrow 96.0 (71.0)
- Halton 95.7 (93.7)
- North Northamptonshire 95.7 (77.1)
- West Northamptonshire 94.4 (71.4)
- Cheshire East 93.6 (87.4)
- Rutland 93.5 (67.8)
- Gloucestershire 92.4 (72.6)
- Kensington & Chelsea 91.6 (78.9)
- Warwickshire 91.5 (79.7)
- Plymouth 90.4 (84.4)
- Bromley 90.3 (82.0)
- Devon 89.3 (74.0)
- Leicestershire 88.8 (80.2)
- Barnet 88.1 (70.8)
- West Sussex 86.3 (76.7)
- Cambridgeshire 86.2 (74.8)
- Shropshire 86.0 (64.4)
- North Somerset 85.9 (69.3)
- Swindon 84.7 (70.7)
- East Sussex 84.4 (76.9)
- Somerset 84.1 (72.6)
- Bath & North East Somerset 82.1 (80.3)
- Surrey 80.2 (64.5)
- Solihull 80.0 (70.0)
- South Gloucestershire 79.8 (64.3)
- Oxfordshire 79.6 (66.5)
- Hampshire 79.2 (68.6)
- Buckinghamshire 79.1 (62.7)
- Knowsley 77.9 (61.9)
- Wiltshire 77.8 (68.8)
- Central Bedfordshire 77.5 (67.3)
- West Berkshire 77.1 (82.1)
- Merton 75.3 (92.4)
- Herefordshire 69.0 (58.9)
- Richmond upon Thames 65.5 (68.1)
- Bracknell Forest 63.1 (54.1)
- Wokingham 39.2 (37.4)