Blood Lead by age and sex
What’s typical for blood lead at every adult age, from a U.S. government health survey of 17,068 people, next to the usual ranges labs print.
NHANES 2015–2016, 2017–March 2020 (pre-pandemic), August 2021–August 202317,068 adultsAI-verified against cited sources. Awaiting expert review
What’s typical at one age
Pick a sex and an age to see the spread among U.S. adults like that, and type a result to see where it falls.
U.S. women aged 40–49
1,315 people in NHANES, 2015–2016, 2017–March 2020 (pre-pandemic), August 2021–August 2023.
Women aged 40–49, 1,315 people: median 0.6, middle half 0.4 to 0.9, middle 90% 0.2 to 1.9 µg/dL. Usual range up to 3.4.
- Median (half are lower)
- 0.6 µg/dL
- Middle half of people
- 0.4 to 0.9
- Middle 90% of people
- 0.2 to 1.9
- Usual range a lab prints
- up to 3.4
Shaded: the middle 90% and middle half of people. Dark line: the median. The bracket above: the usual range.
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Across adult life
NHANES describes the US civilian, non-institutionalized population, not a 'healthy' reference group. People with disease, on medication, fasting or not (except fasting-subsample markers), smokers and so on are all included. A percentile says where a value sits among Americans of that sex and age, not whether it is normal.
Use the left and right arrow keys to read each age. Shift moves five years.
Reference data derived from CDC/NCHS National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES), cycles 2015-2016, 2017-March 2020 (pre-pandemic), August 2021-August 2023. Analysis by bloodtesttracker.com; not endorsed by CDC, NCHS or HHS.
Every percentile
Download this table (CSV)The 25th percentile means a quarter of people in that group had a lower result. In µg/dL. A dash means too few people were measured for the survey to publish that number.
Women
| Age | People | 2.5th | 5th | 10th | 25th | Median | 75th | 90th | 95th | 97.5th |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 18–29 | 1,463 | 0.2 | 0.2 | 0.2 | 0.3 | 0.4 | 0.6 | 0.9 | 1.2 | 1.7 |
| 30–39 | 1,346 | 0.2 | 0.2 | 0.3 | 0.3 | 0.5 | 0.7 | 1.1 | 1.6 | 2.2 |
| 40–49 | 1,315 | 0.2 | 0.2 | 0.3 | 0.4 | 0.6 | 0.9 | 1.3 | 1.9 | 2.5 |
| 50–59 | 1,468 | 0.3 | 0.4 | 0.5 | 0.6 | 0.9 | 1.4 | 1.9 | 2.4 | 2.8 |
| 60–69 | 1,772 | 0.3 | 0.4 | 0.5 | 0.7 | 1 | 1.4 | 2 | 2.3 | 2.8 |
| 70–79 | 1,026 | 0.4 | 0.5 | 0.6 | 0.8 | 1.1 | 1.6 | 2.2 | 2.6 | 3.2 |
| 80+ | 524 | 0.4 | 0.5 | 0.6 | 0.9 | 1.3 | 1.8 | 2.5 | 3.2 | 3.9 |
| All adults | 8,914 | 0.2 | 0.3 | 0.3 | 0.4 | 0.7 | 1.2 | 1.8 | 2.2 | 2.8 |
Men
| Age | People | 2.5th | 5th | 10th | 25th | Median | 75th | 90th | 95th | 97.5th |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 18–29 | 1,400 | 0.2 | 0.2 | 0.3 | 0.4 | 0.6 | 0.9 | 1.4 | 2 | 2.5 |
| 30–39 | 1,144 | 0.3 | 0.3 | 0.4 | 0.5 | 0.7 | 1.1 | 1.8 | 2.6 | 3.4 |
| 40–49 | 1,161 | 0.3 | 0.3 | 0.4 | 0.6 | 0.8 | 1.3 | 1.9 | 2.7 | 3.8 |
| 50–59 | 1,256 | 0.3 | 0.4 | 0.5 | 0.7 | 1 | 1.5 | 2.4 | 2.9 | 3.6 |
| 60–69 | 1,658 | 0.4 | 0.5 | 0.6 | 0.8 | 1.1 | 1.7 | 2.6 | 3.4 | 4.2 |
| 70–79 | 1,023 | 0.5 | 0.5 | 0.6 | 0.9 | 1.3 | 2 | 2.7 | 3.1 | 3.7 |
| 80+ | 512 | 0.5 | 0.6 | 0.8 | 1.1 | 1.5 | 2.3 | 3.3 | 4.2 | 5.8 |
| All adults | 8,154 | 0.3 | 0.3 | 0.4 | 0.6 | 0.9 | 1.4 | 2.2 | 2.9 | 3.7 |
About these numbers
- NHANES describes the US civilian, non-institutionalized population, not a 'healthy' reference group. People with disease, on medication, fasting or not (except fasting-subsample markers), smokers and so on are all included. A percentile says where a value sits among Americans of that sex and age, not whether it is normal.
- Assays differ between labs and between NHANES cycles. Values from a commercial lab can sit a few percent higher or lower than NHANES for the same blood. Earlier cycles were bridged to the 2021-2023 method with NCHS equations where NCHS recommends it.
- Age 80 and over is top-coded at 80 in public NHANES files, so the 80+ cell mixes everyone 80 and older.
- 2021-2023 (cycle L) had a 25.7% exam response rate and no race/income oversampling; NCHS advises caution when combining it with earlier cycles.
- Whole blood, ICP-MS.
Reference data derived from CDC/NCHS National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES), cycles 2015-2016, 2017-March 2020 (pre-pandemic), August 2021-August 2023. Analysis by bloodtesttracker.com; not endorsed by CDC, NCHS or HHS.
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS). National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey Data. Hyattsville, MD: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2015-2016, 2017-March 2020 (pre-pandemic), August 2021-August 2023. https://wwwn.cdc.gov/nchs/nhanes/
The usual adult range
Labs print one adult range for blood lead, whatever your age.
- Adultsup to 3.4 µg/dL