Height is not a number you carry, it is a gap from the people around you. Mean adult height for men and women in 68 countries, so you can see where that gap closes. The US mean man is 5′10″.
Where you stop being the short one
Find your own height on the left. The two columns count the markets where the local average is shorter than you.
| 5′2″ 157 cm | 0 of 68 | 14 of 68 |
|---|---|---|
| 5′4″ 163 cm | 0 of 68 | 44 of 68 |
| 5′6″ 168 cm | 10 of 68 | 64 of 68 |
| 5′8″ 173 cm | 25 of 68 | 68 of 68 |
| 5′10″ 178 cm | 51 of 68 | 68 of 68 |
The average man is the wrong comparison
Every list like this ranks countries by average male height, which answers a question about your competition. You are not dating the average man. Against the average woman the same numbers invert, and the two columns above almost never agree: the height that leaves you below most of the world’s men still leaves you above nearly all of its women.
What this cannot tell you: NCD-RisC publishes averages, not distributions, so there is no honest “taller than 40% of men here” on this page. Whether a market rewards height at all is not measured anywhere either. Averages and gaps only.
68 countries, shortest men first
Gap is how much taller the average man is than the average woman in that country. Click any column to sort.
| Nepal | 5′5″ 164 cm | 5′0″ 152 cm | 4.7″ | 82.7 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Guatemala | 5′5″ 164 cm | 4′11″ 151 cm | 5.3″ | 98.2 |
| Bangladesh | 5′5″ 165 cm | 5′0″ 152 cm | 5.0″ | 94.8 |
| Philippines | 5′5″ 165 cm | 5′1″ 154 cm | 4.4″ | 105.3 |
| Cambodia | 5′5″ 165 cm | 5′1″ 155 cm | 4.2″ | 96.9 |
| Indonesia | 5′5″ 166 cm | 5′1″ 154 cm | 4.7″ | 102 |
| India | 5′6″ 166 cm | 5′1″ 155 cm | 4.4″ | 103.4 |
| Myanmar | 5′6″ 167 cm | 5′1″ 155 cm | 4.7″ | 93.2 |
| Peru | 5′6″ 167 cm | 5′1″ 154 cm | 4.9″ | 95 |
| Ecuador | 5′6″ 167 cm | 5′1″ 155 cm | 4.8″ | 91.9 |
| Vietnam | 5′6″ 169 cm | 5′2″ 158 cm | 4.1″ | 104.2 |
| Malaysia | 5′7″ 169 cm | 5′2″ 157 cm | 4.8″ | 117.2 |
| Honduras | 5′7″ 170 cm | 5′1″ 155 cm | 5.7″ | 92.5 |
| South Africa | 5′7″ 170 cm | 5′2″ 159 cm | 4.3″ | 98.9 |
| Nicaragua | 5′7″ 170 cm | 5′1″ 156 cm | 5.6″ | 97.3 |
| Panama | 5′7″ 170 cm | 5′2″ 158 cm | 4.7″ | 97.8 |
| Mexico | 5′7″ 170 cm | 5′2″ 158 cm | 4.9″ | 98.3 |
| Kenya | 5′7″ 170 cm | 5′3″ 159 cm | 4.4″ | 93 |
| El Salvador | 5′7″ 171 cm | 5′2″ 156 cm | 5.6″ | 89.3 |
| Mongolia | 5′7″ 171 cm | 5′3″ 160 cm | 4.3″ | 99.3 |
| Nigeria | 5′8″ 172 cm | 5′2″ 158 cm | 5.3″ | 101.3 |
| Thailand | 5′8″ 172 cm | 5′3″ 159 cm | 4.8″ | 102.5 |
| Kyrgyzstan | 5′8″ 172 cm | 5′3″ 160 cm | 4.5″ | 98 |
| Colombia | 5′8″ 172 cm | 5′2″ 158 cm | 5.5″ | 98.5 |
| Japan | 5′8″ 172 cm | 5′2″ 158 cm | 5.4″ | 103.3 |
| Chile | 5′8″ 173 cm | 5′3″ 159 cm | 5.3″ | 99.7 |
| Venezuela | 5′8″ 174 cm | 5′3″ 160 cm | 5.3″ | 98.8 |
| Taiwan | 5′8″ 174 cm | 5′3″ 161 cm | 5.0″ | 107 |
| Armenia | 5′8″ 174 cm | 5′3″ 160 cm | 5.4″ | 93.9 |
| Paraguay | 5′8″ 174 cm | 5′3″ 160 cm | 5.5″ | 102.6 |
| Costa Rica | 5′9″ 174 cm | 5′3″ 160 cm | 5.4″ | 105.4 |
| Albania | 5′9″ 174 cm | 5′4″ 162 cm | 4.7″ | 102.7 |
| Bulgaria | 5′9″ 174 cm | 5′5″ 165 cm | 3.8″ | 106.2 |
| Uruguay | 5′9″ 174 cm | 5′4″ 162 cm | 5.0″ | 102 |
| Portugal | 5′9″ 174 cm | 5′3″ 161 cm | 5.2″ | 99.4 |
| Italy | 5′9″ 174 cm | 5′4″ 162 cm | 5.0″ | 107.3 |
| Argentina | 5′9″ 175 cm | 5′3″ 161 cm | 5.4″ | 96.5 |
| Jordan | 5′9″ 175 cm | 5′3″ 160 cm | 6.0″ | 119.6 |
| Kazakhstan | 5′9″ 176 cm | 5′4″ 162 cm | 5.4″ | 102.4 |
| South Korea | 5′9″ 176 cm | 5′4″ 163 cm | 4.8″ | 108.9 |
| Moldova | 5′9″ 176 cm | 5′4″ 163 cm | 5.0″ | 97.8 |
| Iran | 5′9″ 176 cm | 5′3″ 161 cm | 5.7″ | 102.4 |
| Brazil | 5′9″ 176 cm | 5′4″ 162 cm | 5.2″ | 96.7 |
| China | 5′9″ 176 cm | 5′4″ 164 cm | 4.8″ | 108.2 |
| Georgia | 5′9″ 176 cm | 5′4″ 163 cm | 5.0″ | 99.8 |
| Spain | 5′9″ 176 cm | 5′4″ 162 cm | 5.6″ | 103.6 |
| Morocco | 5′9″ 176 cm | 5′3″ 161 cm | 6.0″ | 96.5 |
| Turkey | 5′9″ 176 cm | 5′4″ 162 cm | 5.7″ | 103.2 |
| Hungary | 5′10″ 177 cm | 5′4″ 162 cm | 5.6″ | 106.9 |
| United States of America | 5′10″ 177 cm | 5′4″ 163 cm | 5.4″ | 102.7 |
| Romania | 5′10″ 178 cm | 5′5″ 165 cm | 5.2″ | 105.6 |
| United Kingdom | 5′10″ 178 cm | 5′5″ 164 cm | 5.6″ | 95.9 |
| Belarus | 5′10″ 179 cm | 5′6″ 167 cm | 4.6″ | 99.4 |
| Canada | 5′10″ 179 cm | 5′5″ 165 cm | 5.5″ | 101.3 |
| Australia | 5′10″ 179 cm | 5′5″ 165 cm | 5.6″ | 98.7 |
| Lebanon | 5′10″ 179 cm | 5′4″ 164 cm | 6.0″ | 90.6 |
| Greece | 5′11″ 179 cm | 5′5″ 166 cm | 5.3″ | 108.5 |
| Germany | 5′11″ 180 cm | 5′5″ 166 cm | 5.6″ | 107.3 |
| Norway | 5′11″ 180 cm | 5′6″ 166 cm | 5.6″ | 104.9 |
| Sweden | 5′11″ 180 cm | 5′6″ 167 cm | 5.4″ | 106.2 |
| Finland | 5′11″ 181 cm | 5′6″ 166 cm | 5.6″ | 106.7 |
| Poland | 5′11″ 181 cm | 5′5″ 166 cm | 5.9″ | 103.2 |
| Serbia | 5′11″ 181 cm | 5′6″ 168 cm | 4.9″ | 103.3 |
| Croatia | 5′11″ 181 cm | 5′6″ 167 cm | 5.5″ | 102.9 |
| Slovakia | 5′11″ 181 cm | 5′6″ 167 cm | 5.5″ | 104.9 |
| Czechia | 5′11″ 181 cm | 5′6″ 168 cm | 5.2″ | 104.3 |
| Latvia | 5′11″ 181 cm | 5′6″ 169 cm | 4.9″ | 106 |
| Estonia | 6′0″ 183 cm | 5′6″ 169 cm | 5.6″ | 107.2 |
Height: NCD-RisC mean adult height at age 19, national, for the 68 countries it publishes. Ratio: national census age-by-sex counts, 20–39 band, a different source and vintage, never merged with the height. Full method. Data updated July 29, 2026.
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