• Question: what is the average height and weight for a 12 year old

    Asked by to sakshisharda, Naomi, Mathew, Ian, Edward on 20 Jun 2014. This question was also asked by .
    • Photo: Ian Stephenson

      Ian Stephenson answered on 20 Jun 2014:

      The average height for a 12 year old girl is about 1.52m.

      Here’s a chart:

      However that’s only an average. If you look at the graph you’ll see that the thicker line in the middle is the average. However that doesn’t mean “normal” – virtually everyone will either be taller or shorter than that.

      The other lines are called percentiles. If you took 100 people 5 of the would be underneath the bottom (5th) line (about 1.40m), and 5 of them would be above top (95th) line (1.64). When we do statistics these 5% and 95% lines are used a lot, as they each represent 1 in 20. 1 in 20 is where statisticians have decided “interesting” begins, and would consider anyone between 1.40 and 1.60m within the standard range of expected weights.

      Even then, remember that out of 100 children 10 will be outside this range, so its not really a big deal. Particularly around this age kids grow at very different rates – some get tall early, then stop growing, while some shoot up later on.

    • Photo: Sakshi Sharda

      Sakshi Sharda answered on 20 Jun 2014:

      hi rubys

      I agree with Ian on his explanation. However, these standard graphs are different for different ethnicities, or people coming from different countries because they differ in some of their genes. For example someone coming from China may not follow the height and weight chart shown here. Scientists for that reason make different charts for different nations.

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