36 Stats About Human’s Height For You to Know

There are many stats about the height of human’s body to learn about, which makes it an intriguing topic.

For instance, do you know how much men are taller than women on average?

We tried here to gather as many interesting statistics as possible about this subject, grouped in subtopics.

Here are 36 stats about the human’s height that you may not know:

Country Height

– Netherlands overall has the tallest population in the world, with an average height of about 177.1 cm (5 ft and 9.7 in). ⁽¹⁾

– The shortest People in the world live on the Southeast Asian island East Timor, with a mean height of around 156.4 cm (5 ft and 1.6 in). ⁽¹⁾

– Guatemala overall has the shortest females worldwide, with an average height of about 150.9 cm (11 ft and 11.4 in). ⁽¹⁾

– The average adult male in the US nowadays has a height of around 176.9 cm (5 ft and 9.7 in). ⁽¹⁾

– In the late nineteenth century, Netherlands was a land renowned for its short population, but today Dutch people are among the world’s tallest, with young men averaging 183.8 cm (6 ft 0.4 in) in height. ⁽²⁾

Region Height

– On average, the shortest men can be found in South Asia, where the average height is 165 cm, while the tallest are from Europe and Central Asia, at 177 cm. ⁽³⁾

– Over the past century, growth in average male heights have stagnated in Europe and Central Asia, while reversing in the Middle East, North Africa, East Asia and Pacific & Sub-Saharan Africa. ⁽³⁾

– In the 19th century, North Americans were the tallest in the world, but fell behind over the course of the 20th century. ⁽³⁾

Gender Height

– The height growth of average female stops around three years earlier than the average male (15-16 years old vs 18-19). ⁽²⁾

– On average, women are almost 12 centimeters (4.7 in) shorter than men. ⁽³⁾

– On average, men are about 7% taller than women. ⁽³⁾

– Over the last century, the gap in average male height between the shortest and tallest region has increased from 8 to 12 centimeters (4 cm difference). ⁽³⁾

– While average height of men around the world increased by 5% over the last century, the percentage change in the height of Iranian men was double that at 10%. ⁽³⁾

– 95% of adult males have a height between around 163 and 194 cm (5′ 4.2″ and 6′ 4.4″) while the height of 95% of adult females is between 151 and 179 cm (4′ 11.4″ and 5′ 10.5″). ⁽³⁾

Children Height

– Kids experience an average height decrease of about 1.54 cm (0.6 in) from getting out of bed in the morning to between 4 and 5 pm that same day. ⁽¹⁾

– Humans grow fastest (other than in the womb) as infants and toddlers, rapidly declining from a maximum that extends from birth to roughly age two. ⁽²⁾

– In developed nations, the average total body length of a newborn is about 50 cm (20 in). ⁽²⁾

– After three years of life, kids double in height since birth. ⁽³⁾

– By the age of eight, the rate of growth for boys begins to slow, but for girls it stays high. ⁽³⁾

– At 11 years old, girls are typically more than two centimeters taller than boys. ⁽³⁾

– You can estimate a child’s adult height by doubling a boy’s height at age two and a girl’s height at age 18 months. ⁽⁴⁾

– A boy who smokes 10 cigarettes a day from age 12 to 17 will be about an inch shorter than a boy who does not smoke at all. ⁽⁵⁾

Height Difference

– Executives, professionals and university students are around 2.6 cm (1.0 in) taller than the national average. ⁽¹⁾

– The difference in people’s heights is 60-80% based on genetics ⁽²⁾

– In the 150 years since the mid-nineteenth century, the average human height in developed countries has increased by up to 10 centimeters (3.9 in). ⁽²⁾

– The average young adult today is about 8 or 9 cm (3.1 or 3.5 in), or about 5%, taller than their ancestors 100 years ago. ⁽³⁾

– During the last century, the largest height change was seen for South Korean women, whose mean height increased by 20 cm (7.9 in). ⁽³⁾

Tallest People

– The tallest person in recorded history is Robert Wadlow from Illinois in the US, with a gigantic height of 272 cm (8 ft and 11.1 in). ⁽⁶⁾

– The tallest person alive in the world today is Sultan Kösen from Turkey, who measures 251 cm (8 ft and 2.8 in) in height. ⁽⁶⁾

– The tallest woman in history is Trijntje Keever from Netherlands, with a height of 255 cm (8 ft and 4.4 in). ⁽⁶⁾

– The tallest four men in recorded history are all from the US and have a height that’s over 260 cm (8 ft and 6 in). ⁽⁶⁾

– The tallest living married couple are Chinese ex-basketball players Yao Ming and Ye Li who measure 228.6 cm (7 ft 6 in) and 190.5 cm (6 ft 3 in) respectively, giving them a combined height of 419.1 cm (13 ft 9 in). ⁽²⁾

Others

– The shortest adult human on record was Chandra Bahadur Dangi of Nepal at 54.6 cm (1 ft 9.5 in). ⁽²⁾

– From age 30 to 70 years, men lose 3 cm of height on average and woman lose 5 cm. ⁽⁷⁾

– People make $789 more in yearly income for each inch above average height they are. ⁽⁸⁾

– A shorter height by 6.5 cm (2.6 in) increases the risk of heart disease by 13.5%. ⁽⁹⁾

– You grow the most height during your first year of life as a baby, about 9.5 inches (24 cm). ⁽¹⁰⁾

– Decompressing your spine may help in increasing your height by a few inches. ⁽¹¹⁾

Conclusion

These are 36 stats about human’s height we found to be interesting to know about.

We hope this article taught you new things about height.

If you have other statistics you feel are worth adding to the list, feel free to let us know anytime as we may add it.

References

1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Average_human_height_by_country
2. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_height
3. https://ourworldindata.org/human-height
4. https://www.mayoclinic.org/healthy-lifestyle/childrens-health/expert-answers/child-growth/faq-20057990
5. https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/03/080331135155.htm
6. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_tallest_people
7. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/10547143
8. https://psycnet.apa.org/record/2004-95165-004
9. https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/nejmoa1404881
10. https://www.mayoclinic.org/healthy-lifestyle/infant-and-toddler-health/expert-answers/infant-growth/faq-20058037
11. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/20189463