The average adult woman in the United States weighs about 170.6 pounds, based on data from the CDC’s National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES). That figure applies to women aged 20 and older and has climbed steadily over the past several decades. For context, the average American woman stands 5 feet 3.5 inches tall, which puts the national average squarely in the “overweight” range by standard BMI categories.
How Average Weight Breaks Down by Age
Weight doesn’t stay constant across a woman’s life. It tends to increase from the 20s through middle age, then gradually declines after 60. Based on NHANES measurement data, women aged 20 to 39 average around 167 pounds, women aged 40 to 59 average roughly 176 pounds, and women 60 and older average about 166 pounds. The peak in middle age reflects a combination of hormonal shifts, changes in muscle mass, and the cumulative effects of metabolism slowing over time.
Differences Across Race and Ethnicity
Average weight varies meaningfully by racial and ethnic group, driven by a mix of genetic, socioeconomic, and dietary factors. Non-Hispanic Black women have the highest average weights, with obesity rates well above the national average. Non-Hispanic white and Hispanic women fall closer to the overall national figure, while non-Hispanic Asian women tend to weigh considerably less on average.
Height plays a role here too. Non-Hispanic Black women in the U.S. average about 5 feet 4 inches tall, while non-Hispanic Asian and Mexican-American women average around 5 feet 1.5 inches. A shorter average height means a lower weight can still correspond to a similar or even higher BMI.
What the Average BMI Tells You
At 170.6 pounds and 5 feet 3.5 inches, the average American woman has a BMI of roughly 29.6. That falls just under the threshold of 30, which marks the clinical cutoff for obesity. A “normal” BMI range is 18.5 to 24.9, which for a woman of average height translates to roughly 105 to 140 pounds. The gap between that range and the current national average illustrates how far population weight has shifted.
BMI has real limitations as a health measure. It doesn’t distinguish between muscle and fat, doesn’t account for where fat is stored, and can overestimate health risk in some people while underestimating it in others. Waist circumference often gives a better picture of metabolic risk. For women, a waist measurement above 35 inches (88 cm) is associated with a higher risk of heart disease, type 2 diabetes, and other conditions. That cutoff corresponds roughly to the 95th percentile among healthy women, meaning very few women without weight-related health issues exceed it.
How the Average Has Changed Over Time
American women weighed significantly less just a few generations ago. In the early 1960s, the average weight for an adult woman was about 140 pounds. That means the national average has increased by roughly 30 pounds in about 60 years, a gain of about half a pound per year on average. The sharpest increases came between the 1980s and early 2000s, coinciding with major shifts in food processing, portion sizes, and physical activity levels.
The most recent NHANES data shows that 41.9% of American women now meet the criteria for obesity, and another 27.5% are classified as overweight. Combined, that means roughly 7 in 10 adult women in the U.S. weigh more than what standard guidelines consider a healthy range for their height. These numbers have continued a steady upward trend from the 1990s, when obesity prevalence among women was closer to 25%.
How the U.S. Compares Globally
The average American woman weighs more than women in most other countries. The global average for adult women is closer to 137 pounds. Women in Japan average around 116 pounds, and women in most Western European countries fall between 140 and 155 pounds. Among high-income nations, only a handful of Pacific Island countries have higher average female weights than the United States.
Why “Average” Doesn’t Mean “Healthy”
The word “average” can be misleading when it comes to weight. Because the U.S. average reflects a population where the majority of women exceed the recommended weight range for their height, falling near the average doesn’t necessarily signal good health. Your individual healthy weight depends on your height, body composition, age, and overall health profile. Two women who weigh 170 pounds can have very different health outlooks depending on how much of that weight is muscle versus fat, where fat is distributed, and whether they have related conditions like high blood pressure or insulin resistance.
Waist-to-hip ratio, blood pressure, blood sugar levels, and cholesterol collectively paint a more useful picture than the number on the scale alone. If you’re close to the national average weight and wondering what that means for you specifically, those markers matter far more than where you fall relative to other American women.