Average Height by Country· by country
Every country, measured and ranked by average height. Men across the world average about 173.1 cm across 200 countries — from Netherlands’s 183.8 cm down to Timor-Leste’s 160.1 cm. These are measured averages of the age-19 cohort (2019, NCD-RisC), men and women reported separately. Explore the map, the full table and where your own height would stand.
The world, by average height
Color runs cobalt from shorter to taller. Pick a metric above — the map and the ranked list beside it move together. The four tallest are labeled on the map; hover or tap any country to read its figure.
Tap a country to read its figure.
Natural Earth 10m · Crimea shown as Ukraine · source: NCD-RisC / Lancet, CC BY 4.0
Every country, ranked
The complete table. Click a column to sort. "Men" and "women" are the measured averages; "gap" is men minus women; "vs world" compares the men's figure to the world men's mean.
| # ▲ | Country | Men, cm | Women, cm | Gap ♂−♀ | vs world |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |  Netherlands | 183.8 cm | 170.4 cm | 13.4 cm | +10.7 cm |
| 2 |  Montenegro | 183.3 cm | 170.0 cm | 13.3 cm | +10.2 cm |
| 3 |  Estonia | 182.8 cm | 168.7 cm | 14.1 cm | +9.7 cm |
| 4 |  Bosnia and Herzegovina | 182.5 cm | 167.5 cm | 15.0 cm | +9.4 cm |
| 5 |  Iceland | 182.1 cm | 168.9 cm | 13.2 cm | +9.0 cm |
| 6 |  Denmark | 181.9 cm | 169.5 cm | 12.4 cm | +8.8 cm |
| 7 |  Czechia | 181.2 cm | 168.0 cm | 13.2 cm | +8.1 cm |
| 8 |  Latvia | 181.2 cm | 168.8 cm | 12.4 cm | +8.1 cm |
| 9 |  Slovakia | 181.0 cm | 167.1 cm | 13.9 cm | +7.9 cm |
| 10 |  Slovenia | 181.0 cm | 167.2 cm | 13.8 cm | +7.9 cm |
| 11 |  Ukraine | 181.0 cm | 166.6 cm | 14.4 cm | +7.9 cm |
| 12 |  Croatia | 180.8 cm | 166.8 cm | 14.0 cm | +7.7 cm |
| 13 |  Lithuania | 180.7 cm | 167.6 cm | 13.1 cm | +7.6 cm |
| 14 |  Poland | 180.7 cm | 165.8 cm | 14.9 cm | +7.6 cm |
| 15 |  Serbia | 180.7 cm | 168.3 cm | 12.4 cm | +7.6 cm |
What this number really means
A "national average height" summarizes measured-height studies of a country's young adults, pooled and harmonized by researchers into a single figure. It is not a self-reported survey number: self-reported height is well known to run higher than measured height, because people round up. The figures here come from actual physical measurement, which is a meaningfully stronger standard.
The number is also a snapshot of a specific birth cohort, not a live measurement of "people today." This page uses the age-19 cohort as of 2019 — the last group NCD-RisC could confidently report before the pooled model's coverage thins out. Average height moves slowly across generations: a 23.7-cm gap between the tallest and shortest country averages (men) reflects decades of difference in childhood nutrition, disease burden and healthcare — not a change in gene pool.
Within any single country, the spread between individuals dwarfs the gap between country averages. Genetics sets an individual's ceiling, but at the population level, childhood nutrition and disease are the dominant drivers of how close a cohort gets to that ceiling — which is why average height has risen for many countries over the 20th century with no change in genes. Read height as a rough proxy for a population's health history, not a verdict on any individual or a ranking of "better" and "worse" nations.
Tall nations, and the gap between men and women
Every dot is a country. Right = taller women; up = taller men. The two track closely — where a country is tall, both sexes are tall — but the vertical offset above the line is the men-vs-women gap.
How to read: each dot is a country. Further right = taller women on average; higher up = taller men. Countries line up along a diagonal — where women are tall, men are tall too. The Netherlands sits top-right (tallest of all); Guatemala and Timor-Leste sit bottom-left (shortest).
Five numbers worth remembering
The same dataset, boiled down to the facts people actually repeat.
Where would you stand?
Enter your own height and see your percentile against any country — the one number on this page that is about you.
Frequently asked questions
Which country has the tallest average height?
Netherlands has the tallest national average for both men (about 183.8 cm) and women (about 170.4 cm), based on NCD-RisC's pooled measured-height data for the age-19 cohort as of 2019. Montenegro is close behind for men at about 183.3 cm.
What is the average height for men worldwide?
Country averages for men range from roughly 160.1 cm to 183.8 cm. The unweighted mean of all 200 country averages is about 173.1 cm. Note that this counts every country once, so it is not a population-weighted world average.
What is the average height for women worldwide?
Country averages for women range from about 150.9 cm to 170.4 cm, with Northern and Central European countries clustering at the top. The unweighted mean across all 200 countries is about 161.0 cm.
Is height genetic?
Individual height is strongly influenced by genetics, but population-level average height changes mostly reflect childhood nutrition, disease burden and healthcare access. Genetics sets an individual's potential; environment determines how close a whole population gets to it — which is why average height has risen in many countries within a few generations, with no change in the gene pool.
Are people getting taller over time?
In many countries, yes — average height has risen across generations as childhood nutrition and health improved, though the trend has flattened or even reversed in a handful of countries in recent decades. Because this page reports a single cohort year rather than a time series, it shows where each country stands now, not its trajectory.
Which countries have the shortest average height?
In this dataset, Timor-Leste has the shortest average for men (about 160.1 cm) and Guatemala the shortest for women (about 150.9 cm). The shortest national averages are concentrated in South and South-East Asia and parts of Latin America.
How many countries are in this ranking?
This page ranks 200 countries for which NCD-RisC reports a 2019 average height for the age-19 cohort — using one consistent, measured source so the ranking is comparable.
More, by numbers
Cite this page
CC BY 4.0Our compilation on this page — the figures as arranged, ranked and dated here — is published under CC BY 4.0. Reuse it anywhere, including commercially, with a link back. The underlying data belongs to the organizations credited below.
Us, by Numbers. "Average Height by Country." https://usbynumbers.com
Sources & further reading
Every figure here is built on one measured dataset: NCD-RisC pooled height studies (The Lancet, 2020), released under CC BY 4.0.
- NCD-RisC — Height data downloads (by country)primary dataset
- NCD-RisC — "Height and body-mass index trajectories of school-aged children and adolescents from 1985 to 2019", The Lancet, 2020peer-reviewed
- Our World in Data — Human Heightsecondary / context
- NCD-RisC — Methodsmethodology