🇧🇷Average BMI in Brazil

Key numbers

Estimated share in each WHO category

Columns may not sum to 100 because of rounding. Real BMI distributions have a longer right tail than a normal curve, so the obese share here is probably a few points low.

Brazil among its neighbours

What a given BMI means in Brazil

Read it as: a man with BMI 30 in Brazil has a higher BMI than 75% of men. Values under 1% or over 99% are shown as <1 and >99.

In plain language

The standard deviation for men in Brazil is 5.2. About two thirds of men have a BMI between 21.3 and 31.7; for women the middle two thirds run from 20.9 to 33.1. Compared with the global mean, men here are 2.0 points higher and women 2.2 points higher.

BMI does not distinguish muscle from fat, and the WHO bands were set on European populations. For South and East Asian populations the same BMI carries more health risk, which is why several countries there use 23 and 27.5 as their own cut-offs.

Questions

What is the average BMI in Brazil?

26.5 for men and 27.0 for women, with standard deviations of 5.2 and 6.1. Averaged across the sexes that is 26.8, against a global figure of 24.6.

What share of adults in Brazil are overweight or obese?

Our estimate from the mean and SD: 61% of men have a BMI of 25 or more, and 25% are at 30 or more. For women it is 63% and 31%. These assume a normal curve, so the true obesity shares are likely a few points higher.

Is a BMI of 25 high in Brazil?

A BMI of 25 is the WHO line between healthy weight and overweight. In Brazil it is higher than about 39% of men and 37% of women. So for men here it is below the middle of the pack.

How does Brazil compare with Venezuela?

Men in Venezuela average 26.7 against 26.5 in Brazil; women 26.9 against 27.0. Venezuela ranks 67th, Brazil 68th.