Average BMI in Sao Tome and Principe
Men in Sao Tome and Principe have an average BMI of 24.0, women 25.8. Both means fall in the WHO healthy weight band for men and overweight for women. That puts Sao Tome and Principe 122nd 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.
Sao Tome and Principe among its neighbours
What a given BMI means in Sao Tome and Principe
Read it as: a man with BMI 30 in Sao Tome and Principe has a higher BMI than 86% of men. Values under 1% or over 99% are shown as <1 and >99.
In plain language
The standard deviation for men in Sao Tome and Principe is 5.5. About two thirds of men have a BMI between 18.5 and 29.5; for women the middle two thirds run from 19.6 to 32.0. Compared with the global mean, men here are 0.5 points lower and women 1.0 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 Sao Tome and Principe?
- 24.0 for men and 25.8 for women, with standard deviations of 5.5 and 6.2. Averaged across the sexes that is 24.9, against a global figure of 24.6.
- What share of adults in Sao Tome and Principe are overweight or obese?
- Our estimate from the mean and SD: 43% of men have a BMI of 25 or more, and 14% are at 30 or more. For women it is 55% and 25%. These assume a normal curve, so the true obesity shares are likely a few points higher.
- Is a BMI of 25 high in Sao Tome and Principe?
- A BMI of 25 is the WHO line between healthy weight and overweight. In Sao Tome and Principe it is higher than about 57% of men and 45% of women. For men here that is roughly the median.
- How does Sao Tome and Principe compare with Lesotho?
- Men in Lesotho average 22.8 against 24.0 in Sao Tome and Principe; women 27.1 against 25.8. Lesotho ranks 121st, Sao Tome and Principe 122nd.
NCD-RisC does not publish standard deviations. SD for countries added in 2026-10 uses the global SD. Sao Tome and Principe 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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