New York State Student Weight Status Reports by County and Grade

Biennial data from 2019 onward tracks weight status categories for public school students in New York State, excluding New York City. The New York State Department of Health collects and reports percentages and counts of students classified as underweight, healthy weight, overweight, or obese based on BMI-for-age percentile. Data is aggregated at district, county, regional, and statewide levels for selected grades from Pre-K through 11.

Use Cases

• Analyze trends in Percent Obese and Percent Overweight by County and Year Reported.
• Compare obesity prevalence across Grade Level groups (elementary vs. middle/high) and Sex.
• Model geographic disparities using Region and Area Name to identify high-need counties.
• Calculate total student counts per category by summing Number Healthy Weight, Number Obese, and Number Overweight.

Strengths

• Data covers all public schools in New York State outside New York City.
• Provides biennially updated estimates at multiple geographic levels (district, county, region, state).
• Includes separate percent and count metrics for overweight, obese, and healthy weight categories.

Limitations

• Excludes New York City, limiting statewide representativeness.
• Data is aggregated and reported biennially, not in real-time.
• Sample size or row count is unknown, preventing assessment of statistical power.

Provenance

Source

New York State Department of Health via health.data.ny.gov

Collection Method

Collected via the Student Weight Status Category Reporting System (SWSCR) from required public school reports.

Time Range

Beginning 2019

Freshness

Updated biennially, last updated September 2025.

Geography

New York State, excluding New York City, aggregated by county and region.