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Introduction. The prevalence of overweight and obesity in children is alarming worldwide, including Mexico. Health and social implications of childhood obesity are to be identified in terms of magnitude, trends, and biological and social causes. Objective: To determine the prevalence of overweight, obesity, extreme obesity and abdominal obesity in elementary school children attending public and private schools in Ensenada, Baja California, Mexico, and to assess the association with gender and school type. Methods. Sampling was performed in 2 steps. First, 30 public and 23 private schools were randomly chosen (day shift). Later, 30 groups of each scholar grade in both school types were chosen. The total sample comprised 967 children: 536 and 431 from private and public school, respectively. BMI values were computed and compared with age/gender, BMI percentiles were taken from the USA-CDC-Growth Charts-2000. Waist circumference by age at the 90th percentile was used to define abdominal obesity, 85th-95th for overweight, >95th for obesity, and >99th for extreme obesity. Results. Results showed an overall prevalence of 45%, with overweight (21%), obesity (23.5%), extreme obesity (5%), and abdominal obesity (15%). Children from private schools showed a higher prevalence of both overweight and obesity. No statistical difference in abdominal obesity or extreme obesity was found. Conclusions. These results show a high prevalence of overweight, obesity and abdominal obesity. There is a need to identify pre- and postnatal factors as well as environmental factors throughout the pre-school and school years. Immediate interventions to prevent and control childhood obesity are to be set in place. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]