BMI for girls at 5 years

At 5 years, the median BMI for girls on the CDC 2000 growth charts is 15.2 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 14.4 and 16.1 kg/m², a spread of 1.7 kg/m². The outer lines of CDC’s BMI-for-age chart, the 5th and 95th percentiles, sit at 13.5 and 18.2 kg/m².

Since 4 years, the median has fallen by 0.2 kg/m² over 1 year. By 6 years it reaches 15.2 kg/m².

For boys at 5 years the median is 15.4 kg/m², 0.3 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 5 years the 85th percentile for girls is 16.8 and the 95th is 18.2 kg/m². Above the 95th percentile, CDC's 2022 extended charts replace the original curve, so the 99th percentile here is 21.7 kg/m², computed with the extended method.

Reading the table: a girl at 5 years with a BMI of 15.5 kg/m² is at about the 60th percentile, meaning that out of 100 girls this age, about 60 have a lower BMI.