The median best-ever competition total for women is 645 lb — among 98,656 female raw powerlifters aged 20–45, at all bodyweights. The 25th percentile is 496 lb and the 90th is 882 lb.
| Percentile | Lift |
|---|---|
| 5th | 132 lb (60 kg) |
| 10th | 209 lb (95 kg) |
| 25th | 496 lb (225 kg) |
| 50th (median) | 645 lb (293 kg) |
| 75th | 766 lb (348 kg) |
| 90th | 882 lb (400 kg) |
| 95th | 953 lb (433 kg) |
Source: OpenPowerlifting database, build 2026-07-25-606a59af (public domain). Percentiles computed by Motus. Method.
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Everyone in this table entered a judged powerlifting meet. They are not a sample of gym-goers and they are not a sample of the general population. People who compete in powerlifting have self-selected for being strong, have usually trained specifically for a one-rep max, and lift under competition commands — which is typically harder than the same lift performed in a gym.
If you have never competed, your comparison point is not the 50th percentile here. A more honest reading: this tells you what strong, specifically-trained women at your bodyweight actually do.
We publish no figure for the average woman in the general population, because no comparable dataset of measured one-rep maxes among non-competitors exists. Numbers of that kind circulating online generally come from user-submitted app data, from estimated rather than measured maxes, or from tables with no stated sample. Full method and limitations.
Bodyweight is the single biggest driver of absolute strength, so the all-bodyweight table above is a blunt comparison. These are the same numbers computed within ±5 lb of each bodyweight:
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