Average BMI in North Korea
Men in North Korea have an average BMI of 24.4, women 24.1. Both means fall in the WHO healthy weight band for men and healthy weight for women. That puts North Korea 133rd 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.
North Korea among its neighbours
What a given BMI means in North Korea
Read it as: a man with BMI 30 in North Korea has a higher BMI than 85% of men. Values under 1% or over 99% are shown as <1 and >99.
In plain language
The standard deviation for men in North Korea is 5.5. About two thirds of men have a BMI between 18.9 and 29.9; for women the middle two thirds run from 17.9 to 30.3. Compared with the global mean, men here are 0.1 points lower and women 0.7 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 North Korea?
- 24.4 for men and 24.1 for women, with standard deviations of 5.5 and 6.2. Averaged across the sexes that is 24.3, against a global figure of 24.6.
- What share of adults in North Korea are overweight or obese?
- Our estimate from the mean and SD: 46% of men have a BMI of 25 or more, and 15% are at 30 or more. For women it is 44% and 17%. These assume a normal curve, so the true obesity shares are likely a few points higher.
- Is a BMI of 25 high in North Korea?
- A BMI of 25 is the WHO line between healthy weight and overweight. In North Korea it is higher than about 54% of men and 56% of women. For men here that is roughly the median.
- How does North Korea compare with Hong Kong?
- Men in Hong Kong average 24.6 against 24.4 in North Korea; women 23.9 against 24.1. Hong Kong ranks 132nd, North Korea 133rd.
NCD-RisC does not publish standard deviations. SD for countries added in 2026-10 uses the global SD. North Korea 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.
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