Nearly six in ten adults with high blood pressure in England are undiagnosed, according to the largest study of its kind, raising alarms about a silent public health crisis.

The research from Oxford Population Health, published in BMJ Public Health in September 2026, analysed 1.4 million adults through the Our Future Health programme between 2022 and 2025, Knowridge reported.

It found 37 per cent of adults have hypertension, but 59 per cent of them had not been diagnosed. Half of those already receiving treatment still did not have their blood pressure under control.

Men were more likely to have hypertension than women, at 42 per cent versus 29 per cent. Rates rose steeply with age, from 15 per cent in adults aged 18 to 39 up to 71 per cent in those aged 80 and above, according to UK Pulse.

Lead researcher Wenyu Liu said the current approach to detecting and treating high blood pressure is not fit for purpose, noting that progress in detection has stalled since around 2011.