Average height for men and women

What is the average height for men?

The average height for adult men in the United States is 5′ 9″ (175.3 cm), from the CDC's National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES), which measures thousands of adults with a stadiometer rather than asking them. Worldwide, the average male height for young adults is about 5′ 8″ (173.1 cm), and in India it's about 5′ 5½″ (166.5 cm).

"Average" means the middle of a bell curve. Most American men are within about 7-8 cm of the average, so a man between roughly 5′ 6″ and 6′ 0″ is in the normal range. A 6-foot man is taller than about 84% of American men - tall, but far from rare.

What is the average height for women?

The average height for adult women in the United States is 5′ 3½″ (161.3 cm). The world average for young women is about 5′ 3½″ (160.9 cm), and in India it's about 5′ 1″ (155 cm). A woman who is 5′ 7″ is taller than about 90% of American women, and at 5′ 10″ she's taller than about 99%.

Average male height vs average female height

Across almost every country, men are on average about 12-14 cm (5 inches) taller than women. In the US the gap is 14.0 cm, which you can see to scale by adding the average man and woman to the height comparison chart. The difference mostly appears at puberty: boys start their growth spurt about two years later than girls, which gives them extra years of growth before it ends. That same 13 cm gap is built into the height calculator, which predicts a child's adult height from the parents' heights.

How average height is measured

Good height statistics come from surveys where trained staff measure people - shoes off, heels against a stadiometer, head level. Self-reported heights are less reliable: studies consistently find that people, especially men, round themselves up by a centimetre or two. That's worth remembering when you compare yourself with dating profiles or celebrity listings, which are self-reported too.

The US figures here are for adults aged 20 and over. World and India figures come from the NCD Risk Factor Collaboration (NCD-RisC), which pools hundreds of measured surveys and reports the height of 19-year-olds, when growth has finished but age-related shrinking hasn't started.

What does "tall" mean? Height percentiles explained

A percentile tells you what share of people are shorter than you. At the 50th percentile you're exactly average; at the 90th, you're taller than 90% of adults of your sex. The table above lists percentiles for every height from 4′ 10″ to 6′ 6″, and the checker at the top of the page works out your height percentile from the camera or a typed height.

• For men: 5′ 7″ is below average (25th percentile), 5′ 10″ is a little above (63th), and 6′ 2″ is taller than about 95% of men.
• For women: 5′ 2″ is a little below average (29th percentile), 5′ 5″ is above (71th), and 5′ 9″ is taller than about 98% of women.

These percentiles assume heights follow a normal distribution around the published average - a good approximation for most of the range, a little less exact at the extremes.

Average height by country

The fairest way to compare countries is to use the same age group everywhere. The NCD Risk Factor Collaboration reports measured heights of 19-year-olds, when growth has finished. These are their 2019 figures for the countries people ask about most. They run a little higher than the US figure at the top of this page, which covers all adults aged 20 and over, because younger generations are taller and people lose some height with age.

Source: NCD Risk Factor Collaboration, "Height and body-mass index trajectories of school-aged children and adolescents from 1985 to 2019 in 200 countries and territories", The Lancet, 2020. Age 19, year 2019. Of all 200 countries, the Netherlands has the tallest young men and Timor-Leste the shortest.

Why average heights differ between countries

Genes set each person's range, but whole populations grow taller when childhood nutrition, health care and living conditions improve. Northern European countries such as the Netherlands have some of the tallest young adults in the world, with men averaging around six feet, while some countries in South and Southeast Asia and Central America have the shortest averages. Over the last century, average heights have risen sharply almost everywhere: South Korean women, for example, are about 20 cm taller on average than a century ago.

How your height changes with age

Most people reach their adult height between 14 and 18. From middle age, people slowly lose height as the discs between the vertebrae thin and posture changes - often a few centimetres by old age. You also change during a single day: you're about a centimetre taller when you wake up than at bedtime. For a fair comparison with the averages, measure yourself in the morning, barefoot.

Is my height normal?

Almost certainly. Roughly two out of three adults are within one "standard deviation" of the average - about 7-8 cm either way - and 95% are within twice that. For American men that's roughly 5′ 3″ to 6′ 3″; for women, about 4′ 10″ to 5′ 9″. Being outside that range is simply less common, not a problem in itself. If a child's growth seems unusually fast or slow, though, it's worth mentioning to a doctor, who will look at the pattern over time rather than a single number.

How do you compare?

Averages are more interesting with your own number next to them. Measure yourself with your phone camera using the checker at the top of this page - no tape measure needed - or type your height. Then see which stars share it with the celebrity height twin finder, browse the male and female celebrity heights, or put yourself next to the average man and woman on the height comparison chart. For a healthy weight at your height, see the height and weight chart.