The average American man now weighs 199 pounds. The average woman, 171.8. Those figures come straight from the CDC’s newest measurement survey, and they catch most people off guard — usually because their own number sits nowhere near them. This post breaks down the average weight for height in the United States: what men and women actually weigh, how the numbers shift with each decade of life, and why the average weight for height is a very different thing from a healthy one. That last distinction matters more than most articles admit. By the end, you’ll have both numbers and know which one deserves your attention.
What is the average weight for height in the U.S.?
Every few years, the CDC sends mobile exam units around the country and physically measures thousands of people. No phone surveys, no honor system. The latest round, the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES), ran from August 2021 to August 2023 and was published in June 2025. It’s the most reliable snapshot of the average weight for height that exists, because self-reported numbers always run light — people shave off a few pounds when nobody’s holding the scale.
Here’s what the tape and scale found for adults 20 and older:
| Measurement | Men | Women |
|---|---|---|
| Average height | 68.9 in (about 5’9″) | 63.5 in (about 5’3½”) |
| Average weight | 199.0 lbs | 171.8 lbs |
| Median weight | 191.0 lbs | 162.0 lbs |
| Average waist | 40.6 in | 38.5 in |
Notice the gap between average and median. The median man weighs 191 pounds, meaning half of all men weigh less than that. The average sits 8 pounds higher because the heaviest 5% of men (290+ pounds) pull the mean upward. Same story for women: median 162, average 171.8. So if you weigh less than the “average,” you’re in good company — most people do.
One more thing about how to read this table. The average weight for height here is a population snapshot, a single pair of numbers for a single pair of heights. It doesn’t tell a 6’2″ man or a 5’0″ woman what they should expect to weigh. For that, you’d scale by height using BMI — more on that shortly.
Average weight for men vs. average weight for women
The raw gap is about 27 pounds. Men carry more total mass, but they’re also 5.4 inches taller on average, so the fairer comparison is weight relative to height.
Run the math and something interesting shows up. The average weight for men works out to a BMI of roughly 29.4. The average weight for women lands at about 29.9. Both sit just under 30 — the line where the CDC’s classification shifts from overweight to obese. Relative to her height, the average American woman actually carries slightly more weight than the average man does relative to his.
Quick example: a man at the male average (5’9″, 199 lbs) and a woman at the female average (5’3½”, 171.8 lbs) would both get nearly the same reading from our BMI calculator. Different scales, same category.
Where the sexes genuinely differ is composition. Men hold more muscle and store fat around the abdomen; women carry proportionally more essential fat, distributed toward the hips and thighs. That 40.6-inch average male waist against the 38.5-inch female waist tells you where the weight sits, not just how much there is. A body fat calculator captures that difference far better than a bathroom scale can.
One caution before comparing yourself to either column. The average weight for height for men and for women each hide enormous spread — the middle 90% of men span 134 to 291 pounds. An average is a summary of that whole range, and no single person is obligated to match it.
Average weight for height by age
Weight isn’t static across a lifetime. It climbs, plateaus, then falls. So any average weight for height figure quietly depends on which decade of life you’re asking about. The NHANES age breakdown makes the arc easy to see:
| Age group | Men (avg lbs) | Women (avg lbs) |
|---|---|---|
| 20–29 | 191.3 | 164.9 |
| 30–39 | 201.5 | 178.3 |
| 40–49 | 210.1 | 177.3 |
| 50–59 | 203.0 | 180.0 |
| 60–69 | 196.7 | 171.0 |
| 70–79 | 193.4 | 162.8 |
| 80+ | 180.1 | 149.7 |
Two patterns worth pausing on.
First, the 30s jump. Women gain more than 13 pounds on average between their 20s and 30s — the single biggest decade-to-decade increase in the whole table. Slowing metabolism gets blamed, though research points more toward lifestyle shifts: less activity, more sitting, pregnancy weight that stays. Men add about 10 pounds over the same stretch.
Second, the late-life decline. Men peak in their 40s at 210.1 pounds; women peak in their 50s at 180. After 70, both drop steadily. That’s not good news dressed up as weight loss — it mostly reflects muscle loss (sarcopenia), reduced appetite, and illness. An 80-year-old man weighing 30 pounds less than a 45-year-old isn’t leaner. He’s carrying less muscle.
Height shrinks with age too, which quietly changes the average weight by age picture. Someone who was 5’10” at 30 may measure 5’8″ at 75, so even a stable weight means a rising BMI.
How the average weight for height has changed since 1960
The current numbers look less like a fixed fact and more like a moving target once you rewind the data.
In the 1960–62 survey cycle, the average American man weighed 166.3 pounds. The average woman weighed 140.2. Compare that with today’s 199 and 171.8, and you’re looking at a gain of roughly 32 pounds per person in about sixty years — while average height rose barely half an inch. The CDC’s historical report tracks the climb decade by decade, and it’s remarkably steady. No single culprit, either. Portion sizes grew, jobs became sedentary, ultra-processed food got cheap, and cars replaced walking.
Why does this matter for you? Because it proves the average weight for height is a cultural measurement, not a biological one. A man who weighed 199 pounds in 1962 would have been noticeably heavy for his era. Today he’s typical. Human biology didn’t change in sixty years; the environment did. Which is exactly why anchoring your goal to the current average is a mistake — the anchor keeps moving.
Average weight vs. ideal weight: they are not the same number
Here’s the part that most average-weight articles skip, and it’s the entire reason the distinction matters.
Average describes what people do weigh. Ideal estimates what a person should weigh for the lowest health risk. In the United States right now, those two numbers are far apart — and drifting further.
Work through one example. A 5’9″ man (the average height) has a healthy BMI window of 18.5 to 24.9, which translates to roughly 125 to 169 pounds. The average weight for height at 5’9″ is 199 pounds. That’s 30 pounds above the top of the healthy range. For the average woman at 5’3½”, the healthy window runs about 107 to 145 pounds; she averages 171.8. Nearly 27 pounds over.
The two concepts also age differently. An ideal range for a given height barely moves over a lifetime, while the average weight for height climbs 20 pounds between a person’s 20s and 40s. If your target rises every birthday, it was never a health target to begin with.
Put bluntly: being average in America today means being overweight, and nearly obese. Normal is not the same as healthy, statistically speaking. Comparing yourself to the national average is comparing yourself to a population where the CDC reports about 4 in 10 adults have obesity.
So which target should you use? Not the average — a height-based healthy range. We’ve covered how those ranges and the classic ideal-weight formulas work in our guide on how much you should weigh, so I won’t repeat the formulas here. The short version: your goal weight should come from your height, frame, and body composition, never from what the rest of the country happens to weigh.
How to see where you stand
The average weight for height is trivia until you compare it against your own numbers. Three checks, five minutes total.
Start with BMI. Enter your height and weight into the free BMI calculator and see which side of 25 you land on. It’s a screening number, not a diagnosis — muscular people score high without excess fat — but it’s the fastest first pass.
Then measure your waist. The rule of thumb: keep waist circumference under half your height. A 5’9″ man (69 inches) wants a waist under 34.5 inches. Compare that with the national average of 40.6 and you’ll see why waistlines worry researchers more than scale weight does.
Estimate body fat if you want the fuller picture — the body fat calculator uses circumference measurements, no calipers needed. And if the numbers say it’s time to adjust, the calorie calculator will tell you what maintenance and deficit look like for your size and activity level.
Frequently asked questions
What is the average weight for height for men in the U.S.?
American men age 20 and older average 199 pounds at an average height of 68.9 inches, just under 5’9″, per CDC data measured between August 2021 and August 2023. The median is lower at 191 pounds. At that height and weight, the average man’s BMI is about 29.4 — in the overweight range.
What is the average weight for height for women?
Women average 171.8 pounds at 63.5 inches, roughly 5’3½”. The median American woman weighs 162 pounds. Both figures exclude pregnant women and come from physical measurements, not self-reporting, which makes them a few pounds heavier — and more honest — than survey-based estimates.
Is the average weight also a healthy weight?
No, and that’s the most misread part of this data. The average weight for height in the U.S. corresponds to a BMI near 30 for both sexes, which sits at the doorstep of obesity. A healthy benchmark comes from BMI ranges or ideal-weight formulas, not population averages.
How much does average weight change with age?
Quite a lot — the average weight by age tables above show the full arc. Men climb from 191.3 pounds in their 20s to a peak of 210.1 in their 40s, then decline to 180.1 after 80. Women rise from 164.9 to a peak of 180 in their 50s, falling to 149.7 after 80. The late decline mostly reflects muscle loss, not improved health.
Why doesn’t the average match BMI chart recommendations?
Because BMI charts describe where health risk is lowest, while the average weight for height describes where the population actually sits. Those were closer together decades ago. In 1960, the average American man weighed about 166 pounds. Sixty years of caloric surplus moved the average without moving the biology behind the healthy range.
Where do these average weight for height numbers come from?
From NHANES, run by the CDC’s National Center for Health Statistics. Trained staff measure participants in mobile exam centers, and the latest cycle covered 8,545 people from August 2021 to August 2023. The full tables are in the CDC’s Anthropometric Reference Data report.
Does the average weight for height differ by country?
Substantially. The U.S. sits among the heaviest nations on earth; average adult weights across much of Europe and East Asia run 20 to 50 pounds lighter at similar or slightly shorter heights. The WHO’s obesity data shows how wide the spread is. An “average” American would be well above average in Japan or Vietnam.
What is the average weight for height at 5’9″ specifically?
For men, 5’9″ happens to be the national average height, so the answer is the headline figure: 199 pounds. There’s no separate CDC table for every inch of height, which is why the average weight for height at any specific stature is best estimated through BMI percentiles rather than a lookup chart.
Should I try to weigh what the average person weighs?
No. Aim for a range tied to your own height and build. If you’re below the national average, that alone says little — the average itself is above the healthy zone. Check your BMI, your waist-to-height ratio, and your body fat percentage, and let those three numbers set the target.
The takeaway
The average weight for height in America — 199 pounds for men, 171.8 for women — is a mirror of the population, not a target for you. Averages drift with the culture; healthy ranges don’t. Find your own range with the free BMI calculator, and treat the national numbers as context, nothing more.