BMI for girls at 18 years

At 18 years, the median BMI for girls on the CDC 2000 growth charts is 21.3 kg/m²: half of girls this age have a lower BMI and half a higher one. The middle half of girls, from the 25th to the 75th percentile, falls between 19.4 and 23.8 kg/m², a spread of 4.4 kg/m². The outer lines of CDC’s BMI-for-age chart, the 5th and 95th percentiles, sit at 17.5 and 30.3 kg/m².

Since 17 years, the median has risen by 0.4 kg/m² over 1 year. By 19 years it reaches 21.5 kg/m².

For boys at 18 years the median is 21.9 kg/m², 0.6 kg/m² more than for girls, which is why the charts are drawn separately by sex.

CDC uses BMI-for-age, not weight-for-length, from age 2. At 18 years the 85th percentile for girls is 25.7 and the 95th is 30.3 kg/m². Above the 95th percentile, CDC's 2022 extended charts replace the original curve, so the 99th percentile here is 39.5 kg/m², computed with the extended method.

Reading the table: a girl at 18 years with a BMI of 23.0 kg/m² is at about the 69th percentile, meaning that out of 100 girls this age, about 69 have a lower BMI.