Average BMI in Denmark
Men in Denmark have an average BMI of 26.3, women 24.6. Both means fall in the WHO overweight band for men and healthy weight for women. That puts Denmark 114th of 186 countries in our data, ranked from highest BMI to lowest.
Key numbers
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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.
Denmark among its neighbours
What a given BMI means in Denmark
Read it as: a man with BMI 30 in Denmark 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 Denmark is 5.5. About two thirds of men have a BMI between 20.8 and 31.8; for women the middle two thirds run from 18.4 to 30.8. Compared with the global mean, men here are 1.8 points higher and women 0.2 points lower.
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 Denmark?
- 26.3 for men and 24.6 for women, with standard deviations of 5.5 and 6.2. Averaged across the sexes that is 25.5, against a global figure of 24.6.
- What share of adults in Denmark are overweight or obese?
- Our estimate from the mean and SD: 59% of men have a BMI of 25 or more, and 25% are at 30 or more. For women it is 47% and 19%. These assume a normal curve, so the true obesity shares are likely a few points higher.
- Is a BMI of 25 high in Denmark?
- A BMI of 25 is the WHO line between healthy weight and overweight. In Denmark it is higher than about 41% of men and 53% of women. So for men here it is below the middle of the pack.
- How does Denmark compare with Papua New Guinea?
- Men in Papua New Guinea average 25.4 against 26.3 in Denmark; women 26.0 against 24.6. Papua New Guinea ranks 113th, Denmark 114th.
NCD-RisC does not publish standard deviations. SD for countries added in 2026-10 uses the global SD. Denmark is one of them, so the SD, the category shares and the percentiles above use the global spread rather than one measured here.
Source: NCD Risk Factor Collaboration, Lancet 2017, age-standardised mean BMI for 2016. Percentiles on this page are our estimate from a normal distribution with the stated mean and SD.
Enter your height and weight and see your BMI percentile among men or women in Denmark.
Check your BMI against DenmarkAlso by country: Average height by country and Life expectancy by country.