A study released earlier this week by Statistics Canada caught some people by surprise, revealing that 13 percent of children between the ages of three and 19 years were obese--the highest level ever recorded in this country.

For this week's viz, we've decided to build on this, drawing from recent (2010) data from the World Health Organization (WHO) on physical activity. These data show that almost one-quarter (23 percent) of Canadian adults do not undertake a sufficient amount of physical activity, as measured by the failure to attain 150 minutes of moderate-intensity physical activity each week.

Overall, Canada is in the middle of the pack when our activity levels are compared to other countries, as we rank 82 out of 146 countries in the proportion of adults not attaining 150 minutes of physical activity each week.

At the top of this ignominious list is the Cook Islands, with almost two-thirds (65 percent) of its adult population not exercising enough. This is followed by Colombia (64 percent), Saudi Arabia (61 percent), and Kuwait (57 percent). Conversely, Nepal is last in these rankings, with only four percent of its adult population getting fewer than 150 minutes of physical activity each week. The data also reveal a distinct male-female divide, with a greater proportion of females being insufficiently active when compared to their male counterparts. For example, here in Canada, while 1 out of 5 males fail to attain the 150-minute threshold on a weekly basis, the ratio is 1 out of 4 for females

It's interesting stuff and we hope you enjoy this week's viz--just make sure you don't sit behind your computer all day!