A new report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) compares obesity rates in the United States and Canada. The Associated Press reports that this is the first time the CDC has compared American obesity rates with another country.
The data, which was gathered between 2007 and 2009, reveals that approximately 24.1 percent of Canadians are obese compared to 34.4 percent of Americans.
The numbers were also broken down by ethnicity and gender, showing that 27 percent of Canadian men are considered obese compared to 33 percent of American men. The difference is even greater among women, 24 percent of Canadian women versus 36 percent of American women, NPR reports.
According to the AP, there was interestingly not a statistically significant difference in childhood obesity rates in Canada (12%) and the United States (15.5%).
Some other key findings of the report include:
- Among the non-Hispanic white population, the prevalence of obesity is lower in Canada than in the United States, but the difference is not as large as it is when comparing the entire populations.
- Between the late 1980s and 2007–2009, the prevalence of obesity increased in both Canada and the United States.
- In 2007–2009, the prevalence of obesity among young and middle-aged Canadian women was similar to that observed in U.S. women 20 years earlier.
The full report can be found here.
