🇳🇴Average BMI in Norway

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.

Norway among its neighbours

What a given BMI means in Norway

Read it as: a man with BMI 30 in Norway has a higher BMI than 72% of men. Values under 1% or over 99% are shown as <1 and >99.

In plain language

The standard deviation for men in Norway is 4.5. About two thirds of men have a BMI between 22.9 and 31.9; for women the middle two thirds run from 21.1 to 31.5. Compared with the global mean, men here are 2.9 points higher and women 1.5 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 Norway?

27.4 for men and 26.3 for women, with standard deviations of 4.5 and 5.2. Averaged across the sexes that is 26.9, against a global figure of 24.6.

What share of adults in Norway are overweight or obese?

Our estimate from the mean and SD: 70% of men have a BMI of 25 or more, and 28% are at 30 or more. For women it is 60% and 24%. These assume a normal curve, so the true obesity shares are likely a few points higher.

Is a BMI of 25 high in Norway?

A BMI of 25 is the WHO line between healthy weight and overweight. In Norway it is higher than about 30% of men and 40% of women. So for men here it is below the middle of the pack.

How does Norway compare with Latvia?

Men in Latvia average 27.2 against 27.4 in Norway; women 26.5 against 26.3. Latvia ranks 64th, Norway 65th.