🇪🇬Average BMI in Egypt

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.

Egypt among its neighbours

What a given BMI means in Egypt

Read it as: a man with BMI 30 in Egypt has a higher BMI than 65% of men. Values under 1% or over 99% are shown as <1 and >99.

In plain language

The standard deviation for men in Egypt is 5.6. About two thirds of men have a BMI between 22.3 and 33.5; for women the middle two thirds run from 24.7 to 38.7. Compared with the global mean, men here are 3.4 points higher and women 6.9 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 Egypt?

27.9 for men and 31.7 for women, with standard deviations of 5.6 and 7.0. Averaged across the sexes that is 29.8, against a global figure of 24.6.

What share of adults in Egypt are overweight or obese?

Our estimate from the mean and SD: 70% of men have a BMI of 25 or more, and 35% are at 30 or more. For women it is 83% and 60%. These assume a normal curve, so the true obesity shares are likely a few points higher.

Is a BMI of 25 high in Egypt?

A BMI of 25 is the WHO line between healthy weight and overweight. In Egypt it is higher than about 30% of men and 17% of women. So for men here it is below the middle of the pack.

How does Egypt compare with Micronesia?

Men in Micronesia average 28.3 against 27.9 in Egypt; women 31.5 against 31.7. Micronesia ranks 6th, Egypt 7th.