Normal Respiratory Rate by Age Calculator

About this calculator

Normal respiratory rate — breaths per minute at rest — varies substantially with age: newborns and infants breathe much faster than adults, and the normal range narrows and drops steadily through childhood before settling into the adult range of roughly 12 to 20 breaths per minute. Clinicians use age-specific reference ranges, not a single adult number, when assessing whether a patient’s breathing rate is abnormal.

This calculator looks up the normal breathing rate range for the age you enter, based on standard pediatric and adult vital-sign reference charts, to give a quick point of comparison — it is informational and not a substitute for clinical assessment.