CDC Extended BMI-for-age Growth Charts

In the United States, the prevalence of obesity and severe obesity has increased since 1980, and in 2017-2018, more than 4.5 million children and adolescents had severe obesity. The 2000 CDC BMI-for-age growth charts, based on data from 1963 to 1980 for most children, do not extend beyond the 97th percentile. So, CDC developed new percentiles to monitor very high BMI values. These extended percentiles are based on data for children and adolescents with obesity—including from 1988 to 2016—thus increasing the data available in the reference population. See the report on alternative BMI metrics for more information.