Leaner, or more women? Both, mostly.

46 of 47 markets are leaner than the USA, and 26 of those are female-skewed too. The trade-off the pitch assumes does not show up in the data.

Scatter plot of mean female BMI against the pooled male-to-female ratio at ages 20 to 39, one dot per market, with the USA marked in red

Dot area is women in the band. Colour is the same ratio the vertical axis shows, on the site's shared 94/100/112 ramp.

Download the chart (PNG) Download all 47 markets (CSV)

What the chart says

The shaded quadrant — leaner than the USA and more women than men — holds 26 of 47 markets.
The USA sits at BMI 27.7 and 102.4 men per 100 women: the highest BMI on the chart, and male-skewed.
Japan is the leanest at 21.0. Nigeria is the most male-skewed at 123.5 men per 100 women, driven by migrant labour in its two biggest cities.
The cloud has no slope. A better ratio does not cost body composition, in either direction.

All 47

Every market carrying both a mean female BMI and enough census weight to pool a ratio, best ratio first.

#	Market	Cities pooled	Men per 100 women	Mean BMI, women	Implied weight	Obese women, %
1	Honduras	9	85.9	26.9	143 lb	39.3
2	Kyrgyzstan	10	89.5	25.2	142 lb	25.5
3	Japan	4	90.7	21.0	116 lb	3.7
4	El Salvador	6	92.1	27.5	148 lb	38.8
5	Kenya	6	92.5	24.0	135 lb	16.8
6	Nicaragua	10	92.7	27.0	144 lb	40.3
7	Poland	6	93.1	24.1	146 lb	17.6
8	United Kingdom	8	93.1	26.1	154 lb	28.9
9	Peru	3	93.4	26.3	138 lb	33.3
10	Brazil	6	93.5	25.7	150 lb	33.9
11	Ecuador	10	93.8	26.8	143 lb	33.9
12	Myanmar	5	94.6	22.6	119 lb	10.4
13	Romania	8	94.8	25.2	151 lb	30.0
14	Thailand	7	95.8	24.5	138 lb	19.6
15	Argentina	9	95.9	25.9	148 lb	38.4
16	Morocco	8	96.3	25.7	147 lb	29.9
17	Serbia	6	96.6	23.6	148 lb	18.2
18	Cambodia	6	96.9	22.1	117 lb	6.2
19	Colombia	8	97.2	25.4	140 lb	30.7
20	Guatemala	9	98.1	26.5	133 lb	32.2
21	Paraguay	6	98.4	25.9	146 lb	39.8
22	Kazakhstan	11	98.4	24.7	142 lb	21.2
23	Portugal	9	99.0	23.5	135 lb	19.0
24	Panama	6	99.1	26.9	149 lb	45.0
25	Belarus	7	99.4	24.7	152 lb	21.7
26	Vietnam	7	99.5	21.6	119 lb	2.4
27	Canada	10	100.0	25.5	152 lb	24.4
28	South Korea	6	100.6	22.2	130 lb	6.0
29	Uruguay	6	100.8	25.5	147 lb	37.7
30	Germany	10	100.9	24.2	147 lb	19.1
31	Iran	8	101.2	26.2	150 lb	30.4
32	Turkey	7	101.6	26.6	154 lb	35.2
33	Czechia	10	102.0	24.0	149 lb	22.1
34	Indonesia	6	102.1	23.8	125 lb	16.6
35	United States of America	19	102.4	27.7	163 lb	42.4
36	Philippines	7	102.8	23.3	122 lb	11.6
37	Slovakia	9	103.3	23.6	145 lb	22.0
38	Costa Rica	7	103.6	26.8	152 lb	39.4
39	Chile	10	103.7	27.0	151 lb	46.4
40	Bulgaria	6	103.9	24.1	144 lb	17.3
41	Mexico	6	105.3	27.3	150 lb	41.4
42	Hungary	8	105.8	24.6	143 lb	27.9
43	India	10	109.8	21.5	114 lb	10.4
44	China	12	113.2	22.8	134 lb	8.4
45	Malaysia	6	120.1	25.5	139 lb	28.9
46	Jordan	8	120.8	27.5	154 lb	41.9
47	Nigeria	8	123.5	23.3	129 lb	18.9

The ratio is pooled across that market's publishable cities (Σmen / Σwomen), so it is population-weighted. Implied weight is BMI × height², not measured.

Where this is wrong

Two different levels on one chart, stated rather than blended: the BMI is national, the ratio is pooled from cities.
6 cities held back — their 20–39 census arrays hold fewer than 5,000 people, which is not a population count.
3 market excluded (ARE, LBN, UZB): every one of its cities carries the same national age×sex array, so its pooled band came to more people than its cities hold.
BMI is a 2016 release re-weighted to 20–39; the census arrays are current. Different vintages.
A mean BMI is not a body. It is the one number published at this level.

Sources

NCD Risk Factor Collaboration (NCD-RisC) · National statistics offices (census age×sex)

The same ratio against cost, city by city, is on the cost chart.

More charts

Compare the cities, not the countries →

This chart is one dot per country. The ratio, cost and safety underneath it are per city, and they differ hard inside a market.

The per-market deep-dives — 13 tabs of cost, visa, tax, safety and sub-national ratio for one country — are behind the Pro gate. Everything on this page is not.