The records on the chart
All heights are the ones Guinness World Records verified, with the date they were measured.
| Person | Record | Height | Measured |
|---|---|---|---|
| Robert Wadlow (USA) | Tallest man ever | 272 cm (8′ 11.1″) | 27 June 1940 |
| Sultan Kösen (Türkiye) | Tallest man living | 251 cm (8′ 2.8″) | 8 February 2011, Ankara |
| Zeng Jinlian (China) | Tallest woman ever | 246.3 cm (8′ 1″) | at her death, 13 February 1982 |
| Rumeysa Gelgi (Türkiye) | Tallest woman living | 215.16 cm (7′ 0.7″) | 23 May 2021, Safranbolu |
| Afshin Ghaderzadeh (Iran) | Shortest man living (mobile) | 65.24 cm (2′ 1.7″) | 13 December 2022, Dubai |
| Jyoti Amge (India) | Shortest woman living | 62.8 cm (2′ 0.7″) | 16 December 2011, Nagpur |
| Chandra Bahadur Dangi (Nepal) | Shortest man ever | 54.6 cm (1′ 9.5″) | 26 February 2012, Kathmandu |
The two grey figures are today’s average American man and woman, 175.3 cm and 161.3 cm (CDC, adults 20 and over, 2015–2018), as a reference for everyone else.
The people behind the numbers
Robert Wadlow grew because of an enlarged pituitary gland that made far too much growth hormone. He was measured at 272 cm less than three weeks before he died in July 1940, aged 22, from an infected blister caused by a poorly fitted leg brace. Guinness expects his record to stand for good, because doctors can now slow or stop that kind of growth long before anyone reaches his height.
Sultan Kösen’s height also comes from pituitary gigantism; surgery in 2010 stopped his growth. Zeng Jinlian stood 217 cm by the age of 13 and remains the only woman verified at over 8 feet. Rumeysa Gelgi has a rare overgrowth syndrome and has said she hopes her record raises awareness of such conditions.
At the other end, Jyoti Amge has achondroplasia, a form of dwarfism, and was measured on her 18th birthday. Guinness World Records describes Chandra Bahadur Dangi as having primordial dwarfism; he lived to 75. Afshin Ghaderzadeh is the fourth-shortest man Guinness has ever verified.
Reading the chart
Wadlow was almost exactly five times as tall as Dangi: 217.4 cm (7′ 1.6″) apart. Even the tallest woman living, Rumeysa Gelgi, stands 53.9 cm above the average woman. To see how you would measure up, add yourself under People (the chart has room for three more) and set the eye-level line to your name: next to Wadlow, an average man’s eyes come to about his stomach.
Every figure uses the same average adult outline, so the chart compares standing height only, not body shape.
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.