HRV Chart by Age Apple Watch: What Is Normal?

HRV falls steadily with age. In a study of 84,772 people, the typical resting HRV was 52.1 ms for women aged 20 to 24. It was 20.5 ms for women aged 60 to 64. For men, it went from 47.6 ms to 19.1 ms across the same ages. Those numbers use a measure called RMSSD.

Download Body Insights to see your own HRV beside your personal baseline.

That detail matters on Apple Watch. The standard HRV number in Apple Health uses a different formula, called SDNN.

The chart comes from the Lifelines study in the Netherlands, published in 2020. It gives separate values for women and men across every age group. Your own baseline still tells you more than any chart.

HRV by age chart for women and men

The lines show the median, the middle value for each age group. Half the people in each group sat above it and half below.

Source: Tegegne et al., Lifelines Cohort Study, 2020. Values come from 10-second resting ECG recordings.

Look at how wide the ranges are. Take women aged 40 to 44. Their median was 33.9 ms, but the middle 96% of readings ran from 9.7 ms to 123.7 ms in the study. A number well above or below the median can still be normal for you.

Which Apple Watch number can you compare?

Only an RMSSD reading belongs on this chart. Apple Watch can give you up to three HRV numbers, and they aren't the same kind of number.

Apple's developer docs confirm that HRV in Apple Health is SDNN. (Apple Developer) Testers report that Recovery HRV is RMSSD.

Your watch reads your pulse at the wrist, while the study used short ECG readings at rest. So use the chart as a rough guide and your own trend as the real answer.

What is a good HRV for your age?

A value near the median for your age and sex is typical. Your own usual range is the best reference, so follow whether your number holds steady against it.

Two common questions, answered with the chart:

• Is an HRV of 39 ms good? As an RMSSD reading, 39 ms sits close to the median for women aged 35 to 39 (37.9 ms). It is above the median for men of the same age (32.8 ms).
• Is an HRV of 20 good? As RMSSD, 20 ms is close to the median at 60 to 64 for both women and men. At 25, it would be below the median but still inside the normal range.

If those numbers came from the HRV field in Apple Health, they are SDNN. Compare them with your own past readings instead of this chart.

Why does HRV fall with age?

The Lifelines data show a steady drop from the teens to the early 60s. After 65, the medians level off at about 15 to 18 ms for both women and men.

RMSSD mostly reflects the rest-and-digest side of your nervous system, the side that slows your heart rate. A higher RMSSD means more beat-to-beat change at rest.

Women had higher medians than men from their 20s through their early 60s, and again at 70 to 74. In the teens, at 65 to 69, and at 75 and older, the study found no clear difference.

Read your HRV against your own baseline

Your own history is the chart that matters most, especially if you live with a chronic condition or take heart medicines like beta-blockers. The study left those groups out, so your normal can sit well away from these lines. Here's a simple way to use your own history:

1. Look at your average over the last week, not one morning.
2. Compare it with your usual range over the past month or two.
3. Check sleep, stress, illness, and activity when it drops.
4. Watch for a run of low days, not a single dip.

Body Insights reads your Apple Watch HRV from Apple Health and compares it with your own baseline. Its Nervous System Age looks at your last seven days of HRV and puts that pattern in the context of age.

Related reading

• Nervous System Age: what your HRV trend shows
• HRV and chronic illness: what one reading means
• HRV, stress, and sleep: what to check first today
• Cardio recovery by age: is your Apple Watch result good?
• HRV without panic