This page contains charts for intrauterine growth/size at birth in Australian newborns. Australia uses the CDC or WHO charts and we have not found postnatal charts created with data from Australian children.

Size at Birth by Gestational Age

When creating the curves in this section, we examined three studies published in 1996, 1999, and 2012 (1-3). The 1999 paper used data from ~770,000 babies born in hospitals throughout Australia in the years 1991-1994. The 2012 paper used data from ~2.5 million births in the years 1998 to 2007 (3).

There are two sets of curves here.

The first set uses data from births between 1991 and 1994 (1). It used more children than the 1996 study and drew from children born all over Australia, but was limited to birthweight data. Additionally, the data in the curves is for non-indigenous Australians. Thus, it does not include infants of Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander descent.

Data for indigenous children was not provided, but a summary table notes that it varied widely. Overall, indiginous infants were more likely to be born before 37 weeks, weighed less than non-indigenous infants after 34 weeks' gestation, and were more likely to be small for gestational age.

The second set of curves uses data from all Australian births between 1998 and 2007 (3). The study authors noted the increase in Asians and other ethnic groups in Australia since the early 1990s. They also noted small increases in birthweight compared to the previous study (0 to 25 grams for boys and 5 to 45 grams for girls, depending on age). This study did not compare data for indigenous and non-indigenous Australians.

1. 1. Roberts CL and Lancaster PA. (1999) Australian national birthweight percentiles by gestational age. Med J Aust 170(3):114-118. Abstract on PubMed.   Full text from publisher.
2. 2. Beeby PJ et al. (1996) New South Wales population-based birthweight percentile charts. J Paediatr. Child Health 32(6):512-516. Abstract on PubMed.
3. 3. Dobbins TA et al. (2012) Australian national birthweight percentiles by gestational age, 1998-2007. Med J Aust 197(5):291-294. Abstract on PubMed.   Full text from publisher.
4. 4. Roberts CL and Lancaster PAL (1999) National birthweight percentiles by gestational age for twins born in Australia. Journal of Paediatric Health 35(3):275-282. Abstract on PubMed.