TSAT by age and sex

What’s typical for TSAT at every adult age, from a U.S. government health survey of 8,158 people, next to the usual ranges labs print.

NHANES 2017–March 2020 (pre-pandemic)8,158 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.

Age: 45

U.S. women aged 40–49

643 people in NHANES, 2017–March 2020 (pre-pandemic).

Median (half are lower): 23 %
Middle half of people: 15 to 31
Middle 90% of people: 7.0 to 49
Usual range a lab prints: 15 to 55

Shaded: the middle 90% and middle half of people. Dark line: the median. The bracket above: the usual range.

Your result (optional, in %)

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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.

How TSAT varies with age in the U.S.Shaded: middle 90% and middle 50% of people. Line: the median. %. Point at any age, or focus the chart and use the arrow keys, to read both sexes in words.

Reference data derived from CDC/NCHS National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES), cycles 2017-March 2020 (pre-pandemic). 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 %. A dash means too few people were measured for the survey to publish that number.

Women

TSAT percentiles for U.S. women by age, in %, NHANES 2017–March 2020 (pre-pandemic)
Age	People	2.5th	5th	10th	25th	Median	75th	90th	95th	97.5th
18–29	750	5	7	10	14	22	29	38	47	50
30–39	645	5	7	11	16	23	31	40	47	54
40–49	643	4	7	10	15	23	31	39	49	55
50–59	733	6	11	14	19	25	32	39	45	48
60–69	736	11	13	15	20	26	31	38	41	46
70–79	400	–	13	15	20	25	30	38	41	–
80+	261	–	10	14	18	24	30	39	44	–
All adults	4,168	6	9	12	17	24	31	39	45	50

Men

TSAT percentiles for U.S. men by age, in %, NHANES 2017–March 2020 (pre-pandemic)
Age	People	2.5th	5th	10th	25th	Median	75th	90th	95th	97.5th
18–29	745	12	16	18	23	29	37	46	52	56
30–39	531	12	15	17	23	29	36	44	49	54
40–49	601	15	17	19	23	30	37	46	52	60
50–59	629	12	16	17	23	29	38	44	55	60
60–69	775	9	13	18	23	28	36	44	50	55
70–79	438	–	14	19	25	29	35	43	50	–
80+	271	–	9	16	22	28	37	43	49	–
All adults	3,990	12	15	18	23	29	37	45	51	57

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.
Frozen-serum iron panel (FETIB), 2017-March 2020 only.

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, 2017-March 2020 (pre-pandemic). https://wwwn.cdc.gov/nchs/nhanes/

How we use survey data

The usual adult range

Labs print one adult range for TSAT, whatever your age.

Adults15–55 %

Every range and its source