Average Weight for Women by Height

Body mass index, or BMI, is weight in kilograms divided by height in meters squared.

Body weight is one way that doctors evaluate your health and measure your risk for various diseases. That’s because overweight and obesity can raise your risk for numerous health conditions including heart disease and stroke, certain types of cancer, and kidney disease.

But what is a healthy weight? And where do U.S. women weigh in among other women around the world?

In the U.S., the average woman weighs 170.5 pounds. Whether or not that makes you overweight or obese depends on your height and how much muscle you have.

Your weight will likely change as you age. Average weights of U.S. women across the adult lifespan are:

• Ages 20-39: 167.6 pounds
• Ages 40-59: 176.4 pounds
• Ages 60 and up: 166.5 pounds

Your racial and ethnic background plays a part in your weight too. Across racial groups, average women’s weights in the U.S. look like this:

• Non-Hispanic Asian: 132.4 pounds
• Hispanic: 169 pounds
• Non-Hispanic White: 170.9 pounds
• Non-Hispanic Black: 186.1 pounds

Because your height and muscle tone impact your weight, number of pounds alone is not enough to tell if you are a healthy weight. Body mass index (BMI) is one way to measure if you’re overweight or obese. The higher your BMI, the greater your risk for obesity-related conditions like heart disease, high blood pressure, type 2 diabetes, and some cancers.

Your BMI is your weight in kilograms divided by your height in meters squared. Or you can just find an online BMI calculator like the one on the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute’s website.

A healthy BMI ranges from 18.5 to 24.9. If your BMI is 25 to 29.9, it’s considered overweight, while 30 and above is obese.

Here’s a look at a range of heights and their healthy weight ranges based on BMI:

BMI does have limits. It may overestimate body fat in athletes and people who are muscular and underestimate body fat in older adults and those who have lost muscle.

Women’s average weights and BMIs vary around the world. As of 2016, the Polynesian island nation of Samoa had the highest average female BMI at 34.3. Ethiopia had the lowest on record at 21.1. The average for U.S. women in 2016 was 29.8.

Here’s a look at average women’s BMIs in countries around the world:

Over the last 20 years, American women, on average, have steadily gained weight. In 1999, the average woman weighed 163.8 pounds. Today she weighs around 171 pounds. That weight gain has applied to white, black, and Hispanic women. Asian women have not seen much change in their average weight.

With weight gain, BMI goes up too. As of 2016, the BMI of the average U.S. woman was 29.1 -- up from 28.2 in 1999.

These trends aren’t unique to the U.S. Obesity has almost tripled around the globe since 1975. Nearly four in 10 adults worldwide were overweight in 2016. More than one in 10 was obese. If you are concerned about your weight and the health problems it could cause, talk to your doctor.