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Am I tall or short? Height percentiles for men and women

· 4 min read

Whether you count as tall depends on who you compare yourself with. The clearest answer is a percentile: the share of people of your sex you are taller than. Here is how common heights rank worldwide, and why your country changes the answer.

Men: how heights rank worldwide

  • 165 cm (5′ 5″): taller than about 21% of men.
  • 170 cm (5′ 7″): taller than about 46% of men — almost exactly average.
  • 175 cm (5′ 9″): taller than about 72% of men.
  • 180 cm (5′ 11″): taller than about 90% of men.
  • 185 cm (6′ 1″): taller than about 98% of men.

Women: how heights rank worldwide

  • 150 cm (4′ 11″): taller than about 10% of women.
  • 155 cm (5′ 1″): taller than about 29% of women.
  • 160 cm (5′ 3″): taller than about 58% of women.
  • 165 cm (5′ 5″): taller than about 83% of women.
  • 170 cm (5′ 7″): taller than about 96% of women.

Your country changes the answer

A man who is 175 cm tall is taller than about 88% of men in India, but only about 39% in the United States and 11% in the Netherlands. A woman who is 165 cm tall is taller than about 93% of women in India, 60% in the United States and 21% in the Netherlands.

So the same height can be tall in one country and below average in another. Compare yourself with the people around you, not with a single world number.

How these numbers are calculated

Adult heights follow a bell curve. The figures above use the world averages for young adults from NCD-RisC (170.8 cm for men, 158.6 cm for women) and a typical spread of about 7.1 cm for men and 6.6 cm for women. Real populations are not perfectly bell-shaped, so treat the percentages as close estimates.

Check your exact percentile

The height percentile calculator gives your percentile for your sex in any of 200 countries and worldwide, in cm or feet and inches.

Height percentile calculator →See what percentage of men or women you are taller than, in your country and worldwide.

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