Wokingham Borough has been revealed to have the lowest number of fast food shops in England.
New data from the office for Health Improvement and Disparities (OHID) has revealed the borough had 39 fast food shops per 100,000 population in 2024.
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, at 63 per 100,000, followed by Richmond-upon-Thames in London (65), Herefordshire (69) and Merton in south London (75).
Camden in north London has replaced Bury in Greater Manchester as the area of England with the most fast food outlets per population, the new analysis has suggested.
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.
Only a handful of areas have seen a decline – while Wokingham has retained its status as the area with the fewest outlets per population.
The findings cover a range of shops selling foods including, but not limited to, burgers, pizza, kebabs, chicken, Indian takeaways, Chinese takeaways, and fish and 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.”
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.”
The analysis also showed 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 licensing 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.
