In the survey compiled by the International Association for the Study of Obesity, English and Scottish women lead the heavyweight league of 29 European countries ranked by weight, with almost six in ten obese.

Britain is in the grip of an obesity ‘epidemic’. Child obesity rates have trebled over the past 20 years; 10 per cent of six-year-olds and 17 per cent of 15-year-olds are now considered obese, a report in the British media said. Last year, a government report showed that this would rise to 26 per cent among children by 2050.

According to a report in the Daily Mail of Britain, Scotland tops the female league, with 59.7 per cent of women obese. England takes second place with 58 per cent, a figure matched by Cyprus. The slenderest women are in Switzerland, with only one in three found obese.

The survey showed that just over 35 per cent of Italian female and 40 per cent of French women are overweight.

Britain with 69.5 per cent overweight are just behind in second place, after Cyprus toping the male league with a figure of 72.6 per cent.

Tackling the obesity problem is set to cost the government in the UK tens of billions of pounds a year by 2050. The government is in the final stages of a plan that envisages giving the overweight financial incentives to maintain a healthy lifestyle.