When the prevalence of childhood obesity is examined in Canada and the United States, the U.S. outweighs Canada, according to the National Center for Health Statistics.

In the late 1970's the prevalence of obesity was the same in both countries, and there has been an increase in both countries, but it’s higher here in the United States. Today, the prevalence is four and a half percent higher in the United States than it is in Canada.

"Interestingly, we see differences in girls but we don't see differences overall in boys, particularly in white boys, there's no difference," says Cynthia Ogden with the NCHS.

She says the statistic raises the question as to why we see differences in childhood obesity between the countries for girls, but not for boys.  Ogden says she would like to see further studies looking into the dietary or physical activity difference in girls in the U.S. and Canada.

She also says the report found that the differences in obesity really do not change that much until after the age of six years old. The biggest differences were seen in older children.

The prevalence of obesity among children and adolescents aged 3-19 in Canada was lower (13.0 %) than in the U.S. (17.5%) in recent years.  There was no difference among children aged 3-6 years old.