Average Weights of Humanity Differ
More Markedly in Relation to Age
and Sex Than Is Supposed.
If all the men and women, boys and girls, and infants--black, white,
yellow, brown or red--in all parts of the world, could be weighed on the
same scales, the average weight would be nearly one hundred pounds
avoirdupois. Six-pound infants and three-hundred-pound giants contribute
to the average.
Upon the average, boys at birth weigh a little more and girls a little
less than seven pounds. For the first twelve years the two sexes continue
nearly equal in weight, but beyond that age the boys acquire a decided
preponderance. Young men of twenty average 135 pounds, while the young
women of twenty average 110 pounds each.
Men reach their heaviest weight at about forty years of age, when their
average weight will be about 140 pounds; but women slowly increase in
weight until fifty years of age, when their average weight will be 130
pounds. Taking the men and women together, their weight at full growth
will then average from 108 to 150 pounds; and women from 80 to 130 pounds.