Blood Pressure by Age: What's Normal for Men and Women?

The cutoffs do not change with age. The 2025 US guideline from the American Heart Association and American College of Cardiology calls a reading normal below 120 over 80 at any adult age and defines hypertension as 130 over 80 or higher. What changes is how common higher readings are. In the US national health survey from 2021 to 2023, average measured blood pressure rose from 118/72 for men in their 20s to 129/72 in their 70s, and from 107/69 to 131/72 for women. The top number keeps climbing with age while the bottom number peaks in middle age and then falls. About a quarter of US adults under 40 have hypertension, half of those 40 to 59, and nearly three quarters of those 60 and older.

Blood pressure chart by age for men and women

These are average readings from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, in which trained staff measure a nationally representative sample of Americans with an automated cuff in a mobile examination center. The figures average up to three readings per person and use the survey's weights, so they describe the US adult population rather than only the people tested. They include people taking blood pressure medication and leave out pregnant participants.

Men averaged higher systolic pressure than women through their 60s. Women's averages climbed faster, passed men's in their 70s, and reached 140/71 at 80 and older, the highest of any group. The average adult reading across the survey was 121/75. The groups aged 80 and older are the smallest, so their averages are the least precise.

Normal blood pressure is the same number at every age

None of the three major guidelines sets a higher normal for older adults. The 2025 US guideline from the American Heart Association, American College of Cardiology and partner societies sorts readings into four categories, based on an average of at least two careful readings on at least two occasions, and applies them to all adults. Its treatment goal is under 130/80 for all adults, with separate consideration for people in institutional care, with a limited life expectancy, or who are pregnant.

Europe draws its lines differently. The European Society of Cardiology's 2024 guideline calls a reading below 120/70 non-elevated, adds an elevated category from 120 to 139 systolic or 70 to 89 diastolic, and keeps hypertension at 140/90 or higher. Its treatment target is 120 to 129 systolic, aiming as low as can be achieved for people over 85 or living with frailty. Canada's 2025 guideline from Hypertension Canada matches the US threshold of 130/80, measured with a validated device under proper conditions, and recommends a systolic target under 130 when treatment is well tolerated.

How the top and bottom numbers change with age

The two numbers move differently. In the US survey, average systolic pressure rose decade by decade for women into their 80s, and for men until about 70, where it levelled near 129. Diastolic pressure peaked in middle age, at 79 for men in their 40s and 50s and 77 for women in their 50s, then fell to 68 and 71 by 80 and older. The 2025 US guideline notes that among middle-aged and older adults, higher systolic pressure is both more common and more strongly tied to risk than higher diastolic pressure.

Women's blood pressure also climbs faster than men's. Following 32,833 people in four US community studies over 43 years, researchers found women's systolic and diastolic pressure rose more steeply than men's from as early as their 20s and kept doing so through life, after accounting for other cardiovascular risk factors (JAMA Cardiology, 2020). The survey averages above show the same shape, with women starting lower than men and ending higher.

How common high blood pressure is at each age

The US national survey measured adults between August 2021 and August 2023 and counted anyone at 130/80 or higher, or taking blood pressure medication, as having hypertension. Prevalence more than doubled between the under-40 and 40-to-59 groups, and men were more affected than women below 60.

Awareness tracks age too. Of adults under 40 with hypertension, 27.2 percent knew they had it, against 73.7 percent of those 60 and older. Control, defined in that report as below 130/80, reached 4.5 percent of younger adults with hypertension and 29.2 percent of the oldest group.

Home, overnight and wearable readings

The cutoffs above are for readings taken in a clinic. The 2025 US guideline gives matching values for other settings, and they diverge as pressure rises. A clinic 130/80 corresponds to 130/80 at home and 110/65 averaged overnight, while a clinic 140/90 corresponds to 135/85 at home and 120/70 overnight. Overnight pressure carries its own weight. In a cohort of more than 11,000 adults followed for a median of nearly 14 years, higher nighttime systolic pressure was associated with higher mortality and more cardiovascular events (JAMA, 2019), and the Blood Pressure Research Desk tracks that evidence.

Watch and ring readings are another matter. The same guideline states that reliance on cuffless devices, including smartwatches, for accurate blood pressure measurement should be avoided until they demonstrate greater precision and reliability. How each brand's feature works, and how it has tested against a cuff, is covered in can a smartwatch or ring really measure blood pressure.

Overnight pressure carries its own risk. In 6,359 Japanese patients with cardiovascular risk factors who wore a 24-hour monitor, each 20 mm Hg of nighttime systolic pressure raised the risk of atherosclerotic disease by 18 percent and heart failure by 25 percent, and a riser pattern, pressure higher at night than in the day, more than doubled heart failure risk (Circulation, 2021).

What this does not settle

The averages include people taking blood pressure medication, which lowers the figures for older groups, where treatment is common, and the prevalence figures group everyone 60 and older together. An average describes a population and says nothing about what is healthy for one person, and the guidelines disagree on where elevated ends and hypertension begins, which is why the same 135/85 reading counts as hypertension in the US and Canada and as elevated in Europe.

Common questions

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