Inequalities in concentration of fast food outlets
About 2 mins
Key points
- People who live in more deprived areas are more likely to live in neighbourhoods with a higher concentration of fast food outlets.
- People from minority ethnic groups are more likely to live in neighbourhoods with a higher concentration of fast food outlets.
- There are relatively minor differences between different age groups, with younger people slightly more likely to live in areas with a higher concentration of fast food outlets.
- There is no sizeable difference in the likelihood of disabled and non-disabled people living in neighbourhoods with different concentrations of fast food outlets.
Food from fast food establishments tends to be higher in fat, salt and sugar. Regularly consuming this type of food can lead to weight gain, and subsequent associated problems such as diabetes, heart disease and cancer. Living in a neighbourhood with a high proportion of fast food outlets is a risk to health because it increases the exposure to unhealthy products, even though higher exposure does not necessarily translate into higher consumption.
These charts show the percentages of different population groups living in neighbourhoods with different concentrations of fast food outlets.
- People who live in more deprived areas are more likely to live in neighbourhoods with a higher concentration of fast food outlets. 29% of people living in the most deprived neighbourhoods live in the 20% of neighbourhoods with the highest concentration of fast food outlets. This compares with only 11% of people in the least deprived neighbourhoods.
- People from minority ethnic groups are more likely to live in neighbourhoods where a high proportion of all food establishments are fast food outlets. 29% of Asian or Asian British people live in the 20% of neighbourhoods with the highest concentration of fast food outlets, compared with only 19% of white people.
- Inequalities by age group are not as pronounced. People under 16 years old are the most likely of any age group to live in neighbourhoods with a high proportion of fast food outlets, while people over 64 are the least likely.
- There is no sizeable difference in the likelihood of disabled and non-disabled people living in neighbourhoods with different concentrations of fast food outlets.
The concentration of fast food outlets is higher in more deprived areas, and different population groups have a different likelihood of living in more deprived areas. Therefore, inequalities in likelihood of living in areas with a high concentration of fast food outlets will partially reflect inequalities in their likelihood of living in more deprived areas.
There are other aspects of the food environment – for example availability and affordability of healthy foods – that are not controlled for in this analysis but should be considered for a comprehensive assessment of inequalities in the food environment and subsequent impact on health.
- Fast food outlets are defined by slightly adapting the method set out by Public Health England.
- Information on food outlets, their type and location was extracted from the Food Standards Agency’s Food Hygiene Rating Scheme dataset.
- Fast food outlets are restaurants that are classified as 'takeaway/sandwich shop' in the dataset. Restaurants tagged as 'restaurant/cafe/canteen' in the dataset and including the terms 'McDonald', 'Kentucky', 'Domino’s', 'Papa John', 'chicken', 'pizza', 'burger', 'grill', 'chip', 'KFC', 'kebab', 'fish bar', 'India', 'Chinese' and 'China' as part of their name are also classified as fast food outlets.
- The concentration of fast food outlets is calculated as the percentage of all food establishments in each neighbourhood. Neighbourhoods are defined as Middle layer Super Output Areas (MSOAs), based on 2011 Census areas. MSOAs are geographical areas that comprise 2,000–6,000 households (5,000–15,000 people).
- Deprivation is measured through an adjusted Index of Multiple Deprivation, which includes only the Income Deprivation, Employment Deprivation, and Education, Skills and Training Deprivation domains. Domains that include data on health and neighbourhood characteristics analysed as part of this evidence hub topic area were excluded. The excluded domains are: Health Deprivation and Disability, Crime, Barriers to Housing and Services and Living Environment Deprivation.
- Disability follows the definition of the Equality Act 2010, that is, a person is considered to have a disability if they have a health condition that has lasted (or is expected to last) for a year or longer and reduces their ability to carry out day-to-day activities.
- The analysis is restricted to MSOAs in England only, due to the availability of data at this geographical level.
- MSOAs are grouped into quintiles based on their proportion of takeaway restaurants. For each decile, mid-year population estimates were used to calculate the number of people in each of the age and ethnicity groups.
Data source: Health Foundation analysis of Food Standards Agency, Food Hygiene Rating Scheme data, UK, 2022; Office for National Statistics, Mid-Year Population Estimates, UK, 2019; Office for National Statistics, Census, UK, 2011; Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, English Indices of Deprivation, England, 2019
