Celebrities, especially actors, are quite interesting figures for many people including their physical characteristics. They seem to be taller than the general public.
We wanted here to find out the average height of celebrities by country (for each gender) in addition to the height distribution in the US.
To perform the research, we analyzed the heights of many actors from a select number of countries around the world including the United States.
Here is the data in both metric (cm) and imperial units (ft,in).
Average Height of Actors
As can be seen in the table below, the average height of actors is close for the US, UK, Canada, Australia and Germany. So, we calculated the average height from those countries only.
The average height of a celebrity in the acting field is around 180.8 cm (5′ 11.2″) for males and 166.2 cm (5′ 5.4″) for females. On the other hand, the average height of men and women in general is 175.3 cm (5′ 9″) and 161.3 cm (5′ 3.5″) respectively.
In other words, there is a height difference of around 5 cm (2″) between the actors and general population for both genders.
In general, actors are about 5 cm (2″) taller than the average for both males and females.
Average Height of Actors by Country
Following is the average height of actors and actresses for each country included in our research, sorted by the actor’s height:
| Country | Height (cm) | Height (ft,in) | ||
| Actor | Actress | Actor | Actress | |
| USA | 181.2 | 166.2 | 5′ 11.3″ | 5′ 5.4″ |
| Australia | 181 | 166.5 | 5′ 11.3″ | 5′ 5.5″ |
| Canada | 180.6 | 166 | 5′ 11.1″ | 5′ 5.4″ |
| Germany | 179.9 | 167.4 | 5′ 10.8″ | 5′ 5.9″ |
| UK | 179.6 | 165.7 | 5′ 10.7″ | 5′ 5.2″ |
| India | 176.1 | 163.9 | 5′ 9.3″ | 5′ 4.5″ |
| Japan | 174.8 | 160.5 | 5′ 8.8″ | 5′ 3.2″ |
Excluding India and Japan, there isn’t a significant height difference between the countries.
Based on the table above, the average height in Hollywood is 181.2 cm (5′ 11.3″) for male actors and 166.2 cm (5′ 5.4″) for actresses. Also, the average height in Bollywood is 176.1 cm (5′ 9.3″) for males and 163.9 cm (5′ 4.5″) for females.
Height Distribution for US Actors
Based on the research, US actors are more likely to be tall for both males and females.
When it comes to men, almost half the actors are 183 cm (6′) or taller while the percentage is only 15% for the general men’s population. This indicates a three times more likelihood for a male actor to be tall.
Also, a mere 7% of male actors in the US can be considered short (less than 170 cm or 5′ 7″) versus around 23% for the general population.
For women, there is even a higher probability for an actor to be on the tall side.
36% of female actors in the US are tall (over 170 cm or 5′ 7″) versus only 9% of all women. This means there is a four times more likelihood for an actress to be tall.
Short female actors (under 157 cm or 5′ 2″) constitutes around 8% while short women in general are about 24%.
The research data indicates that female actors have a higher probability than male actors to be tall. In other words; if you pick a random actress and a random male actor in the United States, the former has more chance to be tall compared to the latter.
In the US, an actress is four times more likely to be tall compared to three times more likelihood for a male actor.
Research Method
The research involved basically analyzing the heights of over 49,000 actors (both men and women) from a select number of countries which include the US, UK, Canada, Australia, Germany, India and Japan. We chose those countries specifically because they’re the only ones that have a big enough sample to be statistically representative.
We picked only the actors who were alive in the 20th century because we needed to concentrate on a specific century due to the height difference between generations.
All height numbers were retrieved from IMDb website.
We used the data from the CDC to obtain the average height of men/women and also to calculate the overall percentage of men/women who are tall and those who are short.
Conclusion
The research points clearly to the fact that actors tend to be on the tall side.
For instance, actors are about 5 cm (2″) taller than the average.
The average height in Hollywood is almost the same as the overall average height of actors as mentioned at the beginning of article. And it’s around 181.2 cm (5′ 11.3″) for male actors and 166.2 cm (5′ 5.4″) for actresses.
For Bollywood, the average height of celebrities is 176.1 cm (5′ 9.3″) for men and 163.9 cm (5′ 4.5″) for women.
As indicated, a US male actor is three times more likely to be tall while an actress is four times more likely.
While the height distribution research included only those from the US, we would expect the conclusion will be similar for other countries.
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