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Average height in the world: men, women and every country

· 5 min read

Across the world, the average young man is 170.8 cm (5′ 7″) tall and the average young woman 158.6 cm (5′ 2.5″). Behind those two numbers are differences of more than 20 cm between countries. All figures here are mean heights at age 19 from the NCD-RisC study of 200 countries (2019 data).

The world average

Men: 170.8 cm (5′ 7″). Women: 158.6 cm (5′ 2.5″). The gap between the sexes is about 12 cm (4.8 in), and it is between 10 and 15 cm in most countries.

Heights within a country spread out around the average: about two-thirds of men are within 7 cm of their national average, and two-thirds of women within 6.5 cm.

The tallest countries

  • Netherlands: men 183.8 cm, women 170.4 cm. The Dutch are the tallest people in the world for both sexes.
  • Montenegro: men 183.3 cm, women 170.0 cm.
  • Estonia (men 182.8 cm), Bosnia and Herzegovina (182.5 cm) and Iceland (182.1 cm) complete the top five for men; Denmark (169.5 cm), Iceland (168.9 cm) and Latvia (168.8 cm) for women.

The shortest countries

The shortest men are in Timor-Leste (160.1 cm), Laos (162.8 cm), the Solomon Islands and Papua New Guinea (163.1 cm). The shortest women are in Guatemala (150.9 cm), Bangladesh and Nepal (152.4 cm) and Timor-Leste (152.7 cm).

The difference between the tallest and shortest country is about 24 cm for men and 20 cm for women — more than the average gap between men and women.

Average height in popular countries

  • United States: men 176.9 cm, women 163.3 cm. United Kingdom: 178.2 cm and 163.9 cm. Germany: 180.3 cm and 166.2 cm. France: 178.6 cm and 164.5 cm.
  • Spain: 176.1 cm and 162.0 cm. Italy: 174.4 cm and 161.8 cm. Brazil: 175.7 cm and 162.4 cm. Mexico: 170.3 cm and 157.9 cm.
  • Russia: 176.6 cm and 164.5 cm. Turkey: 176.4 cm and 161.8 cm. Egypt: 174.6 cm and 160.9 cm. Saudi Arabia: 170.7 cm and 158.8 cm.
  • China: 175.7 cm and 163.5 cm. South Korea: 175.5 cm and 163.2 cm. Japan: 172.1 cm and 158.5 cm. Vietnam: 168.9 cm and 158.4 cm. India: 166.5 cm and 155.2 cm. Indonesia: 166.3 cm and 154.4 cm.

People are getting taller

Since 1985 the world average has risen by 2.8 cm for men and 2.1 cm for women, mostly because of better childhood nutrition and health. The biggest gains for men were in China (+8.1 cm), Saudi Arabia (+7.7 cm) and South Korea (+6.8 cm). In countries that were already tall, such as the United States (+1.2 cm), heights have barely changed.

Find your country

The average height by country tool lists all 200 countries for men and women, in cm and in feet and inches, and lets you search and sort the table.

Average height by country →Average height of men and women in 200 countries, ranked and searchable.

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