Waist-to-Height Ratio: Males, Age 25-29
Waist-to-height ratio (WHtR) is waist circumference divided by height. It is a simple marker of central fat distribution: higher values indicate more abdominal fat relative to height, which is linked to greater cardiometabolic risk. A common rule of thumb is to keep WHtR below 0.5 — that is, keep your waist to less than half your height.
These percentiles are from pooled NHANES data (2015–2016, 2017–March 2020, and 2021–2023), approximately 18,700 US adults aged 20 and over. No published study provides US adult WHtR percentile tables, so these were derived directly from CDC public microdata; the method is described on the methodology page. These percentiles reflect the US adult population, which has one of the highest obesity rates among high-income countries — 42.4% of US adults are obese by BMI (Hales et al. 2020). Being at the median here does not mean a value is healthy; the 0.5 boundary sits at or below the 25th percentile in most age groups.
For comparison, a Colombian national survey found substantially lower WHtR at every age — young Colombian men had a median of 0.47 versus 0.52 in this US dataset (Ramirez-Velez et al. 2016). A British national survey found WHtR above 0.5 identifies cardiometabolic risk missed by BMI alone (Ashwell et al. 2010).
Data source: NHANES (CDC) — derived WHtR percentiles About this study
Percentile Distribution
| Percentile | Value (ratio) | Rating |
|---|---|---|
| 5th | 0.423 | Excellent |
| 25th | 0.474 | Above average |
| 50th | 0.527 | Average |
| 75th | 0.605 | Below average |
| 95th | 0.71 | Poor |
What these numbers mean for males aged 25-29
A score around 0.527 is typical (50th percentile) for males in this age group. Times below about 0.474 fall near the 75th percentile or higher, indicating above-average performance (faster is better). Times above about 0.605 fall near the 25th percentile; about 75% of the reference population ran faster.
Percentiles show how common a value is, not whether it is healthy.