Average Height

Average height in the USA

In the NCD-RisC estimates, young adults in the United States (age 18, born 1996) average 177.1 cm (5′ 10″) for men and 163.5 cm (5′ 4″) for women. For all US adults aged 20 and over, a separate national survey gives lower figures; see the US note below for why the two differ.

Average height in Japan

Japanese young adults (age 18, born 1996) average 170.8 cm (5′ 7″) for men and 158.3 cm (5′ 2″) for women. The 95% credible interval, the range the model considers plausible, is 170 cm to 171.6 cm for men and 157.6 cm to 159 cm for women.

Average height in India

Indian young adults (age 18, born 1996) average 164.9 cm (5′ 5″) for men and 152.6 cm (5′ 0″) for women. A single national mean does not show differences between regions or groups within the country.

Tallest and shortest countries

Ranked by the NCD-RisC estimate for young adults (age 18, born 1996). Neighbouring countries are often within the uncertainty of each other, so read these as groups rather than exact positions.

The full list is in the table above; click a column heading to sort by men or women.

US note: a different survey, a different population

This is a separate source, not part of the table above and not comparable one-to-one. The US National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) 2015–2018, run by the CDC’s National Center for Health Statistics, measured US adults aged 20 and over: the mean height is 175.3 cm (5′ 9″) for men and 161.3 cm (5′ 4″) for women (CDC/NCHS, NHANES 2015–2018 (Vital Health Stat 3(46), 2021) (opens in new tab), Tables 11 and 9).

The NCD-RisC figure for the US is higher (177.1 cm (5′ 10″) for men, 163.5 cm (5′ 4″) for women) because it describes a different group: only 18-year-olds born in 1996, estimated by a statistical model. NHANES covers everyone from 20 to over 80, and older people are shorter (men aged 80 and over average 170.4 cm, women 155.6 cm). Even NHANES adults aged 20–29 average 175.8 cm and 162.6 cm, so the survey design and method matter too.

The homepage comparison tool starts with the NHANES figures for “Average US man” and “Average US woman”, because they describe all US adults and come from direct measurement.

Methodology and source

What the numbers mean

• Average means the mean. Each figure is the estimated mean height (the sum of heights divided by the number of people) of all men, or all women, in that country within the group below.
• Population: the national population of men, or of women, who were 18 years old in 2014 (born 1996). Height at 18 is used as a measure of adult height; some people may still grow slightly after that.
• Modelled, not measured. NCD-RisC combined 1,472 population-based measurement surveys covering 18.6 million people in a Bayesian hierarchical model. A country’s figure is not a direct national measurement; countries with little survey data rely more on the model and on neighbouring countries, so their estimates are less certain.
• Uncertainty. Every estimate comes with a 95% credible interval: the range the model considers plausible. The intervals are kept in the data file and not shown in the table. Across this table the intervals are 1.2 cm to 12.6 cm wide (median 3.8 cm) and widest for countries with less data, so a difference of a centimetre or two between countries is not meaningful.
• Unit and rounding: heights are in centimetres, rounded to 0.1 cm, and feet and inches are converted from that value.

Limitations

• These figures describe one birth cohort. Average heights change over generations, so they do not describe older adults, and they are not the current average for all adults.
• National means hide differences between regions, ethnic groups and income levels within a country.
• Country names are shown in a readable form where the dataset uses a formal or older name (for example North Macedonia for “Macedonia (TFYR)”). The original names are kept in the data file.

Why other sites give different numbers

Averages differ with who is counted (all adults, or one age group), when they were born or measured, and how height was obtained: measured in person, self-reported, or modelled from many surveys. A national survey such as NHANES, an older edition of the same dataset, or a ranking built from self-reported heights will not match this table, which does not make any of them wrong. We use a single dataset throughout and never mix sources inside the table.

Source and attribution

Data: NCD Risk Factor Collaboration (NCD-RisC), A century of trends in adult human height (opens in new tab), eLife 2016;5:e13410 (doi:10.7554/eLife.13410 (opens in new tab)), published under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 (opens in new tab) licence. We took the country file (NCD_RisC_eLife_2016_height_age18_countries.csv (opens in new tab)), kept the 1996 birth cohort and rounded values to 0.1 cm. Last checked 2026-10-02.

Where to go next

To see your height next to other people, celebrities, animals or objects, open the height comparison tool. To see where a child’s or teenager’s height falls for their age, use the height percentile calculator, which uses growth reference data, not these country averages.