Normal Blood Pressure and Pulse by Age: One Chart

Blood pressure in mmHg, resting pulse in beats per minute. The blood pressure column is what is typical for that age; the threshold column is what a doctor measures you against. Note that these are two different kinds of number, and the difference matters more as you get older.

Two things in that table do most of the work. The adult blood pressure categories apply to every adult regardless of age — the American College of Cardiology and American Heart Association set normal below 120/80, elevated at 120–129 systolic, stage 1 at 130–139 or 80–89, and stage 2 at 140 or higher or 90 or higher. There is no separate, gentler chart for people over 65. And the resting pulse range does not move with age at all from about ten years old onward: 60–100 bpm at 20, at 50, and at 85.

Children are the exception on both counts. Paediatric blood pressure is judged by percentile — a child's reading is compared against other children of the same age, sex and height, not against a fixed number — which is why the figures above are described as typical rather than normal. From age 13 the American Academy of Pediatrics uses the adult 130/80 threshold. European guidelines (ESC) and the UK's NICE define adult hypertension from 140/90 instead, so a reading of 135/85 is stage 1 in the US framing and not yet hypertension in the European one; your doctor will use the standard where you live.

A typical value is a description of a population. A threshold is a decision boundary. They drift apart with age, and by the sixties they have separated completely:

• The average older adult is above the threshold. A 65-year-old reading 145/85 is entirely ordinary for that decade — and is still stage 2 hypertension, worth treating. "Normal for my age" is a statement about other people, not about your arteries.
• Being typical at 25 is worth less attention than being atypical. Readings are lowest in early adulthood, so a 28-year-old at 135/88 has moved further from their own baseline than the number alone suggests.
• Pulse works the other way round. There is no age-adjusted pulse range to argue about — 60–100 is the band, and what changes with age is your maximum rate during exertion, not your resting one.
• One reading decides nothing. Blood pressure moves with the hour, the coffee, the argument you just had. Doctors act on averages from repeated home measurements, and so should you.

If a single reading lands above 180/120 mmHg, rest a few minutes and measure again. If it stays there, or comes with chest pain, breathlessness, weakness or vision changes, call your emergency number — 911 in the US, 999 in the UK, 112 across the EU, 000 in Australia.

There is a third number hidden in every reading. Pulse pressure is systolic minus diastolic — the gap between the two. At 120/80 it is 40, the textbook value. Unlike resting pulse, this one genuinely changes with age, because stiffening arteries push systolic up while diastolic drifts down.

A persistently wide gap in an older adult is not an emergency and not a diagnosis; it is a finding, and it is more meaningful alongside readings already in the high range. A very narrow gap — under about 25 — usually just reflects a low systolic value, but if it comes with tiredness or dizziness it belongs in the same conversation. Your monitor never prints this number, which is why most people have no idea what theirs is doing.

The chart above is not sex-specific, and neither are the thresholds: 130/80 is stage 1 hypertension for a woman and for a man, at 30 and at 70. What differs is the path each tends to take through it.

• Younger women read lower. Through the twenties to forties, women's averages run roughly 5–10 mmHg below men's of the same age, an effect attributed largely to oestrogen's action on blood vessels.
• The gap closes, then reverses. Blood pressure rises faster in women from the fifties onward, and past about 65 women are more likely than men to have high blood pressure. The cross-over is why a woman who has spent her adult life around 105/65 should treat a settled move into the high 120s as a real change, even though it is still technically below the threshold.
• Resting pulse runs slightly higher in women — typically a handful of beats per minute — largely a matter of heart size. Both sexes sit inside the same 60–100 range, so this shifts where you sit in the band, not whether you are in it.
• Pregnancy has its own rules. Blood pressure often runs lower in mid-pregnancy while resting pulse rises by 10–20 bpm, which is expected. A reading of 140/90 or higher during pregnancy needs prompt medical attention regardless of your usual numbers — this is the one case where you should not wait a week and re-measure.

Most of the time pulse and pressure are read separately. A few combinations are worth recognising, because the pair says something neither number says alone:

• Low blood pressure with a fast pulse. The classic sign that circulating volume has dropped and the heart is compensating — dehydration, blood loss, or serious infection. Occasional and mild after a hot run, it is unremarkable. With confusion, cold clammy skin, or rapid shallow breathing it is a medical emergency; see low blood pressure for the full picture.
• High blood pressure with a slow pulse. Very often simply a beta-blocker doing its job: these drugs lower pressure partly by slowing the heart, and a resting 55 on one is expected rather than alarming. A slow pulse with high pressure in someone not on such a medication, especially with headache or vomiting, should be checked promptly.
• Fever. Expect roughly 10 extra beats per minute per degree Celsius. Judge a resting pulse when you are well, not on day two of flu.
• Dehydration and heat. Less volume, faster beats, often a slightly lower pressure. Drink, sit down, re-measure later.
• Medication changes generally. Both numbers respond, on different timescales. A log covering the fortnight either side of a dose change is far more useful to a doctor than either number in isolation.

Book an appointment for a resting pulse persistently above 100 or below 50 with symptoms, a rhythm that feels irregular or skipping, or repeated readings at or above 140/90. Seek emergency care for chest pain, breathlessness, fainting, or a racing heartbeat that will not settle.

You do not need a separate device: every automatic cuff reading gives you a pulse alongside the pressure, taken at rest, in the same conditions, at the same moment. That is the best resting pulse most people will ever collect, and it usually goes unrecorded.

The technique that makes the pressure trustworthy is the same technique that makes the pulse trustworthy: sit quietly for five minutes, feet flat, back supported, arm at heart height, no caffeine or exercise in the preceding half hour, cuff on bare skin. Take two readings a minute apart and record both — the full method is in how to measure blood pressure at home. For anything a doctor will act on, the standard is a 7-day protocol: morning and evening, two readings each time, then discard the first day and average the rest. A log template shows exactly what to write down.

Blood Pressure Journal records all three numbers together — point the camera at your monitor and it reads them off the screen — then charts pulse alongside pressure over any period, works out the averages the 7-day protocol asks for, and exports a doctor-ready PDF. It is free, syncs privately with iCloud, and needs no account. Whatever you use, the point is the same: the pair of numbers over weeks tells you something that any single reading cannot.