Height Chart of Men and Women in Different Countries

Main Document

"Today several nations, including many European nations, have now surpassed the U.S. in average height, particularly the Netherlands, and Scandinavian nations."

The study of human growth is known as auxology. Growth and height have long been recognized as a measure of the health and wellness of individuals. The chart below shows the average height of males and females in various world countries.

People from different countries grow to different heights.

This may be partly due to genetics, but most differences in height between countries have other causes. For example, children and adolescents who are malnourished, or who suffer from serious diseases, will generally be shorter as adults.

About This Image: The world's smallest man He Pingping sits on the lap of Svetlana Pankratova from Russia at Trafalgar Square in LondonAdult height between ethnic groups also often differs significantly and the average height for each sex within a countries population is significantly different, with adult males being (on average) taller than adult females.

Recent breakthroughs in sequencing the human genome have allowed identification of 697 genetic variants that influence the height of an individual (https://www.nature.com/articles/ng.3097).

Although genetics plays an important role in understanding variation within a given population, human growth can be limited by poor childhood nutrition and illness. The only gene so far attributed with normal height variation is HMGA2.

Genetically speaking, the heights of mother and son and of father and daughter correlate, which suggests that a short mother will be more likely to give birth to a shorter son, and taller fathers are more likely to have tall daughters.

Interesting Facts

• In the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, Europeans in North America were far taller than those in Europe and were once the tallest people in the world.
• The original indigenous population of the Plains Native Americans was also among the tallest populations of the world at the time.
• Today several nations, including many European nations, have now surpassed the U.S. in average height, particularly the Netherlands, and Scandinavian nations.
• In certain countries like the Philippines, younger generations are significantly shorter than those who were born in the 1970's and 1980's - despite today's economic growth and far better standard of living.
• In Malaysia and Thailand, younger generations are currently experiencing average increased height.
• Today, the tallest race of humans is the Nilotic peoples of Sudan such as the Dinka, they have been described as the tallest in the world, with the males in some communities having average heights of 1.9 m (6 ft 3 in) and females at 1.8 m (5 ft 11 in).
• The tallest person in recorded history was Robert Pershing Wadlow who was born in Alton, Illinois USA.
• The current worlds shortest man is He Pingping (Pictured above) from Mongolia.

NOTE: You may also be interested in our:

• Male and Female Height to Weight Ratio Chart for Adults
• Boys and Girls Height to Weight Chart - Babies to Teenagers

Average Global Heights by Country