This report used information from two United Kingdom national cohorts to estimate the magnitude of the effects of learning on depression and obesity. Members of the two cohorts were surveyed in 1999-00, when those in the 1970 cohort were age 33 years and those in the 1958 cohort were age 42 years. Overall, education was an important risk factor for health outcomes. Some of the risk was not caused by education but related to childhood abilities, health, and family background. Taking those three factors into account, results suggested that education significantly impacted the probability of depression for women. The impact was weaker in men. The effects of learning on the probability of obesity were not strong. There was considerable evidence that the public economic costs of depression were much higher than commonly believed. The report concludes that there are substantial health returns to learning and that the sizable differences in health observed for those with different educational levels are partially due to the effects of education and not solely due to differences that precede or explain education. Moreover, these differences in health outcomes are important from a perspective of public finance as well as in terms of equity and wider social wellbeing. (Contains 32 references.) (SM)