Written by Aisha Saleem, Pharmacist & Health Writer at PharmaHealths.com
Last Updated: August 2026
What should u know
Normal ferritin ranges differ by sex and shift across the lifespan, and even respected labs don’t fully agree on the exact numbers.
Adult men typically run higher than adult women, largely because women lose iron through menstruation until menopause.
Ferritin tends to climb with age in adulthood, partly due to a phenomenon researchers call “inflamm-aging,” but the extremes at either end of the range carry real risk, and in advanced old age ferritin can actually decline again in some people.
Always read your result against the specific reference range printed on your own lab report, since ranges genuinely vary between labs and testing methods.
Why Do Different Sources Give Different Ferritin Ranges?
This is a fair thing to notice, and it’s not a mistake on anyone’s part. I pulled ranges from several credible sources while researching this, and they genuinely don’t match exactly.
MedlinePlus, a US government health resource, lists 30 to 400 ng/mL for men and 13 to 150 ng/mL for women. Cleveland Clinic lists a wider range for both sexes, 30 to 566 ng/mL for men and 15 to 205 ng/mL for women. A peer-reviewed study on adolescents cites yet another set of adult cutoffs, 30 to 300 ng/mL for men and 18 to 115 ng/mL for women. A separate study on Korean adults used still different cutoffs, 200 ng/mL for men and 150 ng/mL for women, to define an elevated range. None of these are wrong. Ferritin assays vary between laboratories and testing methods, which is exactly why your own lab report will show its own specific reference range rather than a single universal number. Treat the figures below as a general guide, not a substitute for what’s printed on your results.
What Are Normal Ferritin Levels by Age Group?
Ferritin isn’t static across a lifetime. Based on the ranges I found across multiple sources, here’s a general picture of how it shifts,
• Newborns (0 to 1 month): roughly 25 to 200 ng/mL, reflecting iron stores built up during pregnancy
• Infants (1 to 5 months): levels can run even higher during this window before settling
• Children (6 months to 15 years): roughly 7 to 140 ng/mL
• Adult men: roughly 18 to 300 ng/mL depending on the lab, generally rising further with age
• Adult women, reproductive years: roughly 12 to 150 ng/mL, generally lower than men due to monthly blood loss
• Adult women, after menopause: reference ranges tend to shift upward, closer to 18 to 204 ng/mL in some sources, once monthly iron loss stops
Why Do Men Have Higher Ferritin Than Women?
The short answer is menstruation. Women of reproductive age lose iron every month through their periods, which keeps ferritin lower on average compared with men, who don’t have a comparable regular iron loss. This is also why the reference range for women shifts upward after menopause, once that monthly loss stops.
Why Does Ferritin Increase with Age?
This is a genuinely interesting question that most sources touch on without fully explaining. Part of the answer comes down to something researchers call “inflamm-aging,” a pattern of low grade, chronic inflammation that tends to increase with age. Ferritin behaves as an acute-phase protein, meaning it rises somewhat during inflammation, independent of how much iron you’re actually storing. Combined with the natural end of menstrual iron loss in women, this explains a good part of why average ferritin climbs through adulthood in most reference charts.
That said, I don’t want to oversimplify this, because the picture isn’t quite that clean in every population. A large population cohort study following adults aged 52 and older found that the extremes at either end carried real risk, not just the middle of the range. Women in the lowest ferritin quartile had a higher risk of all-cause mortality, while men in the highest quartile, even without a diagnosed chronic disease, showed increased mortality risk as well. Separately, research looking specifically at very old age has found that ferritin can decline again in some people, and that this decline has been linked to a higher risk of heart failure. Together, this tells me the simple “ferritin rises with age” chart doesn’t capture the whole picture, especially at the older end of the age spectrum, and it’s one more reason not to interpret an isolated number without context.
Is a “Normal” Ferritin Range the Same as the Right Amount of Daily Iron?
No, and it’s worth keeping these two separates, since they’re easy to conflate. Ferritin reflects how much iron you have stored, while daily iron intake recommendations tell you how much iron you need to consume to maintain those stores. The recommended daily iron intake is 8 mg for adult men, 18 mg for women aged 19 to 50, and 27 mg during pregnancy, dropping back to 8 mg for women over 50, broadly mirroring the same pattern seen in ferritin ranges, since women’s higher menstrual losses mean they need more dietary iron to maintain the same stores men maintain with less.
What Is a Normal Ferritin Level for a Newborn or Baby?
Newborns typically start with relatively high ferritin, generally cited around 25 to 200 ng/mL, reflecting iron reserves built up during pregnancy. These levels usually decline over the following months as the baby grows and those stores are used up, before settling into the lower ranges seen in older children. If a pediatrician orders a ferritin test for your baby, it’s worth asking specifically what reference range they’re using, since infant ranges shift quickly month to month.
Conclusion
Normal ferritin isn’t one number, it shifts by sex, by age, and even by which lab tested your blood. Reading your result against your own lab’s reference range, alongside your symptoms, tells you far more than comparing it to a single chart online.
Disclaimer
This article is for informational purposes only and is not a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Always consult a qualified healthcare provider regarding any medical condition.
References
• MedlinePlus (U.S. National Library of Medicine) – Ferritin blood test: https://medlineplus.gov/ency/article/003317.htm
• Cleveland Clinic – Ferritin Test: Levels & Test Results: https://my.clevelandclinic.org/health/diagnostics/17820-ferritin-test
• PMC/NCBI – The relationship between plasma ferritin levels and body mass index among adolescents: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6193036/
• World Health Organization – Ferritin concentrations (ELENA): https://www.who.int/tools/elena/interventions/ferritin-concentrations
• ScienceDirect – Increased ferritin levels could reflect ongoing aging-associated inflammation and may obscure underlying iron deficiency in the geriatric population: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S1878764912001155
• PMC/NCBI – The regulatory effect of blood group on ferritin levels in aging: a retrospective study: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC12005183/
• PMC/NCBI – Ferritin Level Is Positively Associated with Chronic Kidney Disease in Korean Men: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5129268/
• PMC/NCBI – The association of ferritin with cardiovascular and all-cause mortality in community-dwellers: The English Longitudinal Study of Ageing: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5462410/
• NIH Office of Dietary Supplements – Iron, Fact Sheet for Consumers: https://ods.od.nih.gov/factsheets/Iron-Consumer/
