Height comparison
Two heights drawn to scale, with the difference in both systems — and where each one falls among US adults, so the answer is not only which is taller but whether either is unusual.
By Alex Seote, Built and maintains Rule Calculator
Survey figures last checked · How we check
First person
Second person
First person is taller by 13.0 cm — 5.1 inches, or 0' 5" of difference.
First person
48th percentile
Taller than about 48% of US adult men, so shorter than the other 52%.
Second person
54th percentile
Taller than about 54% of US adult women.
Where the percentiles come from
The National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey measures a sample of the US population with a wall-mounted stadiometer rather than asking them. The figures used here are for adults aged 20 and over, all race and Hispanic-origin groups, from the 2015–2018 cycles: 5,092 men and 5,510 women examined.
| Percentile | Men | Women |
|---|---|---|
| 5th | 162.8 cm | 149.8 cm |
| 10th | 165.8 cm | 152.5 cm |
| 15th | 167.6 cm | 153.9 cm |
| 25th | 170.1 cm | 156.4 cm |
| 50th | 175.4 cm | 161.3 cm |
| 75th | 180.2 cm | 166 cm |
| 85th | 182.9 cm | 168.4 cm |
| 90th | 184.7 cm | 170.2 cm |
| 95th | 187.4 cm | 172.5 cm |
Between two published points the percentile is interpolated in a straight line. Outside the 5th and 95th there is no published figure, and this page says so rather than fitting a curve and reporting the result as though it had been measured.
Source: NCHS — Anthropometric Reference Data for Children and Adults: United States, 2015–2018 (Series 3, No. 46), tables 9 and 11.
Questions people actually ask
- Is 5 ft 10 in tall?
- For a US man it is a little above the middle: the median is 175.4 cm, which is 5 ft 9 in, so 5 ft 10 in sits just past halfway. For a US woman the median is 161.3 cm — 5 ft 4 in — and 5 ft 10 in is beyond the 95th percentile the survey publishes. The word "tall" carries a comparison group inside it, and changing that group changes the answer more than changing the height does.
- Why do the figures look shorter than people I know?
- Because these are measured with a stadiometer rather than asked. Self-reported height runs about an inch high on average, and higher still for men, so any figure gathered from a form sits above one gathered with a ruler. Every number on this page comes from the measured survey.
- What is the average height in the US?
- 175.3 cm for men aged 20 and over and 161.3 cm for women — 5 ft 9 in and 5 ft 4 in. Those are means across 10,602 examined adults in the 2015–2018 survey, and they fall with age: women aged 80 and over average 155.6 cm, about six centimetres below women in their twenties.
- Why does it say "beyond the table" instead of a number?
- Because the survey publishes percentiles from the 5th to the 95th and nothing outside them. A height past either end could be given a number by fitting a curve to the published points, and that number would be an extrapolation wearing the clothes of a measurement. Saying where the data stops is the honest version.
- Does the comparison group have to match the person?
- No — it is a choice, and sometimes the useful one is the other group. A woman of 178 cm learns more from seeing where she sits among men than from being told she is off the top of the female table. The control is there so the question can be asked either way.