Child growth percentiles
Reference tables for tracking a child's growth over time — from the WHO standards for the first five years, and the Indian Academy of Pediatrics revised charts from 5 to 18.
These are population reference curves. They answer "how do children of this age and sex measure?" — they do not answer "is my child all right?", and no chart can.
There are pages for 44 ages, boys and girls.
Boys
Girls
Two references, two age ranges
0 to 5 years — WHO Child Growth Standards. These were built from the Multicentre Growth Reference Study, which followed healthy, breastfed children raised in conditions that did not constrain growth, across six countries including India. They are a standard rather than a description: they show how children grow when nothing is holding them back, which is why the same curves are used worldwide.
5 to 18 years — IAP 2015 revised charts. Beyond five, the WHO reference is a different kind of dataset and fits contemporary Indian children poorly, particularly through puberty. The Indian Academy of Pediatrics published revised height, weight and BMI charts in 2015 built from measurements of Indian children, and those are what this site uses for school-age children and adolescents.
Source: WHO Child Growth Standards (2006). Length/height-for-age and weight-for-age percentile tables (birth to 5 years), WHO Multicentre Growth Reference Study Group. Values are WHO's own published percentile values (LMS-derived), transcribed verbatim from the official WHO Excel percentile tables. Source tables.
Source: Khadilkar V, Yadav S, Agrawal KK, Tamboli S, Banerjee M, Cherian A, Goyal JP, Khadilkar A, Kumaravel V, Mohan V, Narayanappa D, Ray I, Yewale V; IAP Growth Chart Committee. Revised IAP Growth Charts for Height, Weight and Body Mass Index for 5- to 18-year-old Indian Children. Indian Pediatrics 2015;52(1):47-55. Tables II (boys height), III (boys weight), IV (girls height), V (girls weight). Paper.
How to read a percentile
If a five-year-old boy is on the 25th percentile for height, that means 25 out of 100 boys his age in the reference population are shorter than him and 75 are taller. That is the whole meaning of the number. It is not a score, it is not a grade, and it does not become one by being low.
Growth is judged by whether a child stays on their curve. Children find their own channel in the first two years and then tend to track along it. A steady 15th percentile is normal growth. A fall across two or more percentile channels is the pattern that warrants a look — and interpreting that requires the plotted chart, not a table.
If you are worried about your child's growth, take the measurements to a paediatrician rather than to a website. That is not a disclaimer for our benefit; it is genuinely the only way to read these numbers properly.
Questions
Which growth chart should be used for Indian children?
For children under 5, the WHO Child Growth Standards are the reference used in India and internationally — they describe how children should grow under good conditions, and the Indian Academy of Pediatrics recommends them for this age group. From 5 to 18 years, the IAP's own 2015 revised charts, built from contemporary Indian data, are the recommended reference for Indian children. Both are used on this site, each for the age range it was designed for.
What does the 50th percentile mean?
It is the median — half of healthy children of that age and sex measure above it and half below. It is not a target. A child on the 20th percentile who stays on the 20th percentile is growing normally; a child who drops from the 60th to the 15th over a year is the one a paediatrician wants to see, even though the second child is still 'above' the first at every point.
Is my child short if they are below the 3rd percentile?
Being below the 3rd percentile means the child is shorter than about 97 out of 100 children of that age and sex in the reference population. That is a reason to have a paediatrician look at the growth curve over time, parental heights and general health — it is not itself a diagnosis, and most children who sit low on the chart are simply small and healthy.
How often should a child be measured?
Routinely at the standard immunisation and well-child visits in the early years, and roughly annually after that. Measuring at home every few weeks tends to produce noise rather than information — small children are measured lying down and then standing up, which alone changes the number, and technique varies more than real growth does over short intervals.
Percentile values reproduced from the published WHO and IAP reference tables without modification; no value is interpolated. General information only — not medical advice. Growth varies enormously between healthy individuals; a single measurement means little. Discuss any concern about a child's growth with a paediatrician. See data & method for every source, survey round and rounding rule used on this site.