Female BMI: Latin America against the USA and Canada

Mean BMI for women 20 to 39 across 18 Latin-American markets, the USA and Canada. The USA is 27.7. Cuba is 25.3. 15 of 18 markets sit above Canada.

Every figure is the same body shape at a shared scale: height is mean female height, width is the square root of BMI times height, so the drawn figure's implied mass tracks the country's implied weight. The USA is the red baseline. A schematic silhouette, not a photograph, and not a depiction of any person.

Same method, same scale, a more legible female silhouette (hair, head, waist) instead of a plain outline. This cut is by BMI only, so it does not include Guatemala's height minimum shown above. Only height and width are scaled; the silhouette shape itself is fixed and carries no number of its own.

What the chart says

1. The gap the audience expects is not in the mean. The USA is 27.7 and 2 of 18 Latin-American markets sit within half a point of it. The leanest market in the set, Cuba, is 25.3: a gap of about two BMI points, not a category difference.
2. Canada is leaner than most of the region. At 25.5 it sits below 15 of 18 Latin-American markets, so "North America versus Latin America" is not what this data separates.
3. On prevalence the region is ahead of the USA, not behind it. 10 of 18 markets have a higher female overweight share than the USA's 69.9%, and Chile tops the set at 80.6%.
4. A mean says nothing about a distribution. Two countries with the same mean BMI can have very different shares above 25, which is exactly why both panels ship together.

All 20

Every market in the comparison, leanest mean BMI first.

Four columns, three populations: mean BMI is women 20 to 39 (2016), mean height is women at age 19 (2019), the WHO shares are women 18+ (2024). Compare down a column, never across.

Where this is wrong

• Implied weight is not measured weight. No source publishes mean adult weight by country, so it is mean BMI times mean height squared. Mean BMI times mean height squared is not the mean of individual weights, and the height behind it is an age-19 mean against a 20 to 39 BMI.
• BMI describes neither shape nor body composition. It is mass over height squared and does not separate muscle from fat. The silhouette is a scaled shape, not a depiction of anyone.
• Different releases and different age windows. NCD-RisC BMI is 2016, height 2019, WHO prevalence 2024 and 18+. Subtracting one from another produces a number that means nothing.
• Modelled estimates, not measurements. WHO pools national surveys and models the rest; NCD-RisC pools measured surveys. Neither is a census.

Sources

Mean BMI and mean height: NCD Risk Factor Collaboration (NCD-RisC), women. Overweight and obese shares: WHO Global Health Observatory, indicators NCD_BMI_25A and NCD_BMI_30A, women 18+, age-standardized. Full provenance in DATA_SOURCES.md.

Body metrics sit beside the sex ratio, cost and safety on the research desk.

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.