BMI for boys at 5 years

At 5 years, the median BMI for boys on the CDC 2000 growth charts is 15.4 kg/m²: half of boys this age have a lower BMI and half a higher one. The middle half of boys, from the 25th to the 75th percentile, falls between 14.7 and 16.3 kg/m², a spread of 1.6 kg/m². The outer lines of CDC’s BMI-for-age chart, the 5th and 95th percentiles, sit at 13.8 and 17.9 kg/m².

Since 4 years, the median has fallen by 0.2 kg/m² over 1 year. By 6 years it reaches 15.4 kg/m².

For girls at 5 years the median is 15.2 kg/m², 0.3 kg/m² less than for boys, which is why the charts are drawn separately by sex.

CDC uses BMI-for-age, not weight-for-length, from age 2. At 5 years the 85th percentile for boys is 16.8 and the 95th is 17.9 kg/m². Above the 95th percentile, CDC's 2022 extended charts replace the original curve, so the 99th percentile here is 21.4 kg/m², computed with the extended method.

Reading the table: a boy at 5 years with a BMI of 16.0 kg/m² is at about the 68th percentile, meaning that out of 100 boys this age, about 68 have a lower BMI.