Background: Obesity is a significant public health concern affecting more than half a billion people worldwide giving rise to a range of health problems. This is due to its various and serious health hazards on one side and its preventable nature on the other side. Objective: This study aimed at identification of prevalence of overweight and obesity and its risk factors among children between 6 - 12 years of age in Qena, Egypt. Methods and populations: A cross sectional study was conducted on 1000 students were chosen randomly from all grades of primary schools (6 -12 years) in the period from January, 2019 to June, 2019. Results: The overall prevalence of obesity and overweight was 13.9% and 16.2% respectively. Girls were more obese than boys, (OR= 7.26, 95% CI: 4.6-10.19). Current study revealed that 71.2% of the obese and 66.7 of overweight children were from urban areas (OR= 0.172, 95 % CI: 0.115- 0.257) and 38.5% of the overweight children and 97.2% of the obese children had an obese parent (OR = 134.4, 95% CI: 47.06 - 372.6). There was a statistical significant association between prevalence of overweight and obesity in school children and education of the mother (OR = 10.2, 95% CI: 6.2- 16.6). Conclusion: About one out of seven of 6-12 year-old-children in Qena city were obese. Locality of residence, gender, guardian education, obese guardian, feeding formula in early life, bad dietary habit (fast food consumption and missed breakfast) and lack of physical activity were likely to be the predictors of this alarming issue.