Reading the chart
The chart puts one partner at 5′4″ (162.6 cm), close to the average US woman’s 161.3 cm, next to five possible partners: the same height, then 3, 6, 9 and 12 inches taller. The figures are drawn to scale on the same baseline, so you can compare where the heads, shoulders and eyes line up. The head-height lines run across from the top of every head, and setting the Eye-level line to the 5′4″ figure draws a line at her eye height, so you can see which part of each partner she would look at straight ahead.
Putting in your own couple
- Remove the figures you don’t need with their ✕ buttons, leaving two.
- Type your names and heights in the People list, in feet and inches or centimeters (the unit switch converts everything).
- Pick a silhouette for each person: man, woman, child or generic. Couples of any genders work the same way.
- Read the summary under the chart: the difference in both units, how much taller in percent, and roughly where the shorter partner’s eyes land on the taller one.
Edits on this page aren’t saved, so it always opens with the chart above. Share result makes a link to your chart, and Download PNG gives you an image to post.
How big are real height differences?
The largest study of real couples’ heights we know of looked at 12,502 UK parents of children born in 2000–2002 (the Millennium Cohort Study, analysed by Stulp, Buunk, Pollet, Nettle and Verhulst in PLOS ONE, 2013). The women averaged 163.8 cm and the men 177.9 cm, and the average couple was 14.1 cm apart, a little under the “6 in taller” figure on this chart. The man was taller in 92.5% of couples. Gaps of 25 cm (about 10 inches) or more occurred in 13.9% of couples (15.7% expected at random), and couples where the woman was as tall or taller in 7.5% (10.2% expected): both rarer than if people paired up at random by height, but not by much. The authors’ conclusion was that height preferences show up in real couples “only modestly”.
The heights on this chart
| Figure | Height | Next to the 5′4″ partner |
|---|---|---|
| Same height | 5′4″ (162.6 cm) | eye to eye |
| 3 in taller | 5′7″ (170.2 cm) | 7.6 cm taller |
| 6 in taller | 5′10″ (177.8 cm) | 15.2 cm, close to the average couple |
| 9 in taller | 6′1″ (185.4 cm) | 22.9 cm, above 90% of US men |
| 12 in taller | 6′4″ (193.0 cm) | 30.5 cm, above 95% of US men |
The US figures are from the CDC’s Anthropometric Reference Data for Children and Adults: United States, 2015–2018 (adults 20 and over: men 175.3 cm on average, with the 90th percentile at 184.7 cm and the 95th at 187.4 cm; women 161.3 cm).
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.