What the chart shows
Each pair is the average man and woman of one country, in the same color: the Netherlands, the tallest country in the world for both sexes; the United States; China and India, the two most populous countries; and Timor-Leste, where men are the shortest of all 200 countries and territories in the data. The gap from the average Dutch man to the average Timorese man is 23.7 cm (9.3 in), more than the difference between an average man and an average woman in any country.
The gap between the sexes varies too. Dutch men are 13.4 cm taller than Dutch women and American men 13.6 cm taller than American women, but in Timor-Leste the difference is only 7.4 cm.
Where the numbers come from
The heights are from the NCD Risk Factor Collaboration (NCD-RisC), a network of health scientists who pooled 2,181 population-based studies with 65 million participants to estimate average height at every age from 5 to 19, in 200 countries and territories, from 1985 to 2019 (published in The Lancet in 2020). This page uses the average height at 19 in 2019, the latest year: by then growth has almost stopped, and comparing everyone at the same age keeps the comparison fair.
These are estimates with a margin of error: NCD-RisC gives a 95% range of 181.5 to 186.2 cm for Dutch men and 158.0 to 162.2 cm for Timorese men. Treat a difference of a centimetre or two between neighbouring countries as a tie.
Heights have changed fast
The same data goes back to 1985, and some countries have grown remarkably in one generation. Chinese 19-year-old men gained 8.0 cm between 1985 and 2019, the largest increase of any country, and South Korean men 6.8 cm. American men gained 1.2 cm over the same years. In 24 countries, 20 of them in sub-Saharan Africa, 19-year-old men were slightly shorter in 2019 than in 1985; the largest falls, about 2.5 cm, were in the Solomon Islands and Papua New Guinea.
More countries (19-year-olds, 2019)
| Country | Men | Women | Rank of 200 (men / women) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Netherlands | 183.8 cm (6′ 0.4″) | 170.4 cm (5′ 7.1″) | 1 / 1 |
| Montenegro | 183.3 cm (6′ 0.2″) | 170.0 cm (5′ 6.9″) | 2 / 2 |
| Denmark | 181.9 cm (5′ 11.6″) | 169.5 cm (5′ 6.7″) | 6 / 3 |
| Poland | 180.7 cm (5′ 11.1″) | 165.8 cm (5′ 5.3″) | 15 / 31 |
| Germany | 180.3 cm (5′ 11″) | 166.2 cm (5′ 5.4″) | 19 / 25 |
| Australia | 178.8 cm (5′ 10.4″) | 164.7 cm (5′ 4.8″) | 29 / 40 |
| Canada | 178.7 cm (5′ 10.4″) | 164.7 cm (5′ 4.8″) | 30 / 39 |
| France | 178.6 cm (5′ 10.3″) | 164.5 cm (5′ 4.8″) | 34 / 45 |
| United Kingdom | 178.2 cm (5′ 10.2″) | 163.9 cm (5′ 4.5″) | 39 / 49 |
| United States | 176.9 cm (5′ 9.6″) | 163.3 cm (5′ 4.3″) | 47 / 58 |
| Russia | 176.6 cm (5′ 9.5″) | 164.5 cm (5′ 4.8″) | 49 / 43 |
| Türkiye | 176.4 cm (5′ 9.4″) | 161.8 cm (5′ 3.7″) | 54 / 80 |
| Spain | 176.1 cm (5′ 9.3″) | 162.0 cm (5′ 3.8″) | 58 / 77 |
| Brazil | 175.7 cm (5′ 9.2″) | 162.4 cm (5′ 3.9″) | 64 / 70 |
| China | 175.7 cm (5′ 9.2″) | 163.5 cm (5′ 4.4″) | 65 / 54 |
| Iran | 175.6 cm (5′ 9.1″) | 161.2 cm (5′ 3.5″) | 66 / 94 |
| South Korea | 175.5 cm (5′ 9.1″) | 163.2 cm (5′ 4.3″) | 68 / 60 |
| Egypt | 174.6 cm (5′ 8.7″) | 160.9 cm (5′ 3.3″) | 80 / 97 |
| Italy | 174.4 cm (5′ 8.7″) | 161.8 cm (5′ 3.7″) | 82 / 79 |
| Japan | 172.1 cm (5′ 7.8″) | 158.5 cm (5′ 2.4″) | 114 / 146 |
| Nigeria | 171.6 cm (5′ 7.6″) | 158.1 cm (5′ 2.2″) | 122 / 152 |
| Mexico | 170.3 cm (5′ 7″) | 157.9 cm (5′ 2.2″) | 140 / 158 |
| South Africa | 169.6 cm (5′ 6.8″) | 158.6 cm (5′ 2.4″) | 147 / 144 |
| Vietnam | 168.9 cm (5′ 6.5″) | 158.4 cm (5′ 2.4″) | 154 / 148 |
| Ethiopia | 168.8 cm (5′ 6.5″) | 157.2 cm (5′ 1.9″) | 155 / 163 |
| Pakistan | 167.3 cm (5′ 5.9″) | 154.8 cm (5′ 0.9″) | 174 / 186 |
| India | 166.5 cm (5′ 5.6″) | 155.2 cm (5′ 1.1″) | 180 / 182 |
| Indonesia | 166.3 cm (5′ 5.5″) | 154.4 cm (5′ 0.8″) | 183 / 192 |
| Philippines | 165.2 cm (5′ 5″) | 154.1 cm (5′ 0.7″) | 190 / 194 |
| Bangladesh | 165.1 cm (5′ 5″) | 152.4 cm (5′ 0″) | 192 / 199 |
| Nepal | 164.4 cm (5′ 4.7″) | 152.4 cm (5′ 0″) | 194 / 198 |
| Guatemala | 164.4 cm (5′ 4.7″) | 150.9 cm (4′ 11.4″) | 195 / 200 |
| Timor-Leste | 160.1 cm (5′ 3″) | 152.7 cm (5′ 0.1″) | 200 / 197 |
To put a country on the chart, type its name and the height under People, pick the man or woman figure and press Add. Countries a few places apart in the ranking often differ by less than their margins of error, so don’t read much into a single place.
The people you add, edit or remove on this page aren’t saved, so it always opens with the chart above (your head-height line setting, and a unit you pick here, are saved). To build a chart the browser remembers, use the height comparison chart.