- published: 26 Aug 2015
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Obesity in Canada is a growing health concern with health officials stating that it is one of the leading causes of preventable deaths in Canada.[citation needed] According to Forbes, Canada ranks 35 on a 2007 list of fattest countries with a percentage of 61.1% of its citizens with an unhealthy weight.
In children, obesity has substantially increased between 1989 and 2004 with rates in boys increasing from 2% to 10% and rates among girls increasing from 2% to 9%.
A 2004 study called the Canadian Community Health Survey, found 23% of Canadians 18 and older were obese and 36% more were overweight (as determined by body mass index). In children and adolescents, 8% were obese and 18% overweight. Rates of obesity varied significantly between the province, from an obesity rate of 19% in British Columbia to a rate of 34% in Newfoundland and Labrador. The prevalence of obesity in the two most populated provinces, Ontario and Quebec, matched those of thirty US states, at a level equal to or greater than 25%. The study found people that live in cities (Census Metropolitan Areas) had significantly lower obesity rates in Nova Scotia, Ontario, Manitoba, Alberta and British Columbia. In Quebec the relationship approached significance (p=0.8), while in Newfoundland and Labrador, New Brunswick and Saskatchewan the rate of obesity did not vary significantly between CMAs and rural areas.
Canada ( /ˈkænədə/) is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean. Spanning over 9,900,000 km2 (3,800,000 sq mi), Canada is the world's second-largest country by total area, and its common border with the United States is the longest land border in the world.
The land that is now Canada has been inhabited for millennia by various Aboriginal peoples. Beginning in the late 15th century, British and French colonial expeditions explored, and later settled, along the region's Atlantic coast. France ceded nearly all of its colonies in North America in 1763 after the Seven Years' War. In 1867, with the union of three British North American colonies through Confederation, Canada was formed as a federal dominion of four provinces. This began an accretion of provinces and territories and a process of increasing autonomy; the Canada Act 1982 severed the vestiges of legal dependence on Britain.