Statistics Canada has just released new results from the 2009-11 Canadian Health Measures Survey on overweight and obesity levels among children and youth in Canada. Based on the most recent World Health Organization body mass index classification, approximately 1.6 million of all 5- to 17-year-olds in Canada (31.5%) are overweight (19.8%) or obese (11.7%).

The proportion of overweight or obese children and youth is similar across age groups (5- to 11-year-olds, 12- to 17-year-olds). There is, however, a marked difference between genders: 15.1% of boys are overweight or obese compared to 8.0% of girls. The greatest disparity occurs in 5- to 11-year-olds where the proportion of boys who are overweight or obese (19.5%) is more than 3 times that of girls (6.3%)

Click here to freely access the full paper from Statistics Canada detailing these important results on overweight and obesity among children and youth in Canada.