Percent, after disposal, of ownership interest of a divested business in which an equity method investment is retained.

No definition available.

Name:	bdx_DisposalGroupIncludingDiscontinuedOperationPercentOfBusinessRetained
Namespace Prefix:	bdx_
Data Type:	num:percentItemType
Balance Type:	na
Period Type:	instant

- Definition

Percent of ownership interest in a business that is sold in a disposal transaction.

+ References

No definition available.

+ Details

Name:	bdx_DisposalGroupIncludingDiscontinuedOperationPercentOfBusinessSold
Namespace Prefix:	bdx_
Data Type:	num:percentItemType
Balance Type:	na
Period Type:	instant

- Definition

Amount of revenue attributable to disposal group, including, but not limited to, discontinued operation.

+ References

Reference 1: http://www.xbrl.org/2003/role/presentationRef
-Publisher FASB
-Name Accounting Standards Codification
-Topic 205
-SubTopic 20
-Section 50
-Paragraph 5B
-Subparagraph (b)
-URI http://asc.fasb.org/extlink&oid=64827811&loc=SL51721673-107760

+ Details

Name:	us-gaap_DisposalGroupIncludingDiscontinuedOperationRevenue
Namespace Prefix:	us-gaap_
Data Type:	xbrli:monetaryItemType
Balance Type:	credit
Period Type:	duration

- Definition

Line items represent financial concepts included in a table. These concepts are used to disclose reportable information associated with domain members defined in one or many axes to the table.

+ References

No definition available.

+ Details

Name:	us-gaap_IncomeStatementBalanceSheetAndAdditionalDisclosuresByDisposalGroupsIncludingDiscontinuedOperationsLineItems
Namespace Prefix:	us-gaap_
Data Type:	xbrli:stringItemType
Balance Type:	na
Period Type:	duration

- Details

Name:	us-gaap_IncomeStatementBalanceSheetAndAdditionalDisclosuresByDisposalGroupsIncludingDiscontinuedOperationsAxis=bdx_RespiratorySolutionsMember
Namespace Prefix:
Data Type:	na
Balance Type:
Period Type:

- Details

Name:	us-gaap_DisposalGroupClassificationAxis=us-gaap_DisposalGroupHeldforsaleNotDiscontinuedOperationsMember
Namespace Prefix:
Data Type:	na
Balance Type:
Period Type:

Divestiture - Additional Information (Detail) - Respiratory Solutions - USD ($) $ in Millions	3 Months Ended	6 Months Ended
	Mar. 31, 2016	Mar. 31, 2016	Oct. 03, 2016
Income Statement, Balance Sheet and Additional Disclosures by Disposal Groups, Including Discontinued Operations [Line Items]
Revenues	$ 213	$ 421
Disposal Group, Held-for-sale, Not Discontinued Operations
Income Statement, Balance Sheet and Additional Disclosures by Disposal Groups, Including Discontinued Operations [Line Items]
Disposal group, percent of business sold			50.10%
Disposal group, percent of business retained			49.90%