Average Height in Canada (Men & Women)

The headline numbers for Canada

Canadian men born in 1996 average 178.1 cm (5′10″) as adults, and Canadian women 163.9 cm (5′4½″), according to estimates from the NCD Risk Factor Collaboration (NCD-RisC) that this site uses for every country. That puts Canada 27th of 200 countries for men and 40th for women, a solidly tall country by world standards but some distance behind the tallest populations of northern Europe.

Those figures come from a single, consistent model, which makes them good for comparing countries. They are not the same as the numbers Statistics Canada publishes from its own measurement surveys, and the gap between the two can confuse readers. This guide explains where each figure comes from, why they differ, how Canadians compare with Americans and Europeans, and what a century of data shows about Canadian growth.

What a "birth cohort" average means

The NCD-RisC study, published in eLife in 2016, pooled 1,472 population-based data sources with measured height for more than 18.6 million people. It produced estimates for 200 countries and territories for adults born every year from 1896 to 1996, reported at age 18. The researchers used only measured height and excluded self-reports, stating that self-reported height "is subject to systematic bias."

Organizing data by year of birth rather than survey year matters in a country like Canada, where the adult population spans many generations. A survey that measures everyone aged 18 to 79 averages together people born in the 1930s and people born in the 1990s. The cohort approach separates them, so the 1996 figure describes young Canadians, not the whole adult population.

The model has limits. Only 72 countries had data for people born in 1920 or earlier. Early values for any country lean more heavily on the statistical model, so the 1896 numbers below are best read as estimates with wider uncertainty.

A century of Canadian height

Canada started the 20th century already tall. Men born in 1896 averaged 170.7 cm in the NCD-RisC series, a figure that was high by the standards of the time. Our World in Data notes that North Americans were the tallest people in the world in the 19th century, before many European countries overtook them in the 20th.

Over 100 years, men gained 7.4 cm and women 6.3 cm. The pattern is steady rather than dramatic. There's no sudden jump like the one seen in South Korea, and no reversal. Gains averaged a little over 2 cm per 30-year step for men until the 1950s cohorts, then slowed: men born in 1996 are just 1.0 cm taller than those born in 1976, and women 0.6 cm taller.

That slowing is typical of wealthy countries that reached good childhood nutrition and health early. Our World in Data describes height as a marker of living standards in childhood, shaped heavily by nutrition and disease in the first years of life. When nearly all children are well fed and healthy, the room for further population-wide gains narrows, and growth flattens out.

The male-female gap in Canada widened slightly, from 13.1 cm for the 1896 cohort to 14.2 cm for the 1996 cohort, because men's height rose a little faster than women's in the later cohorts.

What Statistics Canada measures

Canada has strong national measurement data of its own. The Canadian Health Measures Survey (CHMS), run by Statistics Canada, sends trained staff to measure participants directly rather than relying on what people say about themselves. Its tables report height for the household population by age and sex.

In the 2009 to 2011 cycle, the CHMS measured these averages:

Two things stand out. First, the 20 to 39 group, born roughly between 1970 and 1991, measured 177.7 cm for men and 163.0 cm for women, very close to the NCD-RisC estimates for the 1976 cohort (177.1 cm and 163.3 cm). The national survey and the international model agree well where they overlap.

Second, height falls with age. Men aged 60 to 79 measured about 5 cm shorter than men aged 20 to 39. Part of that is the cohort effect, since older Canadians were born when average height was lower. Part reflects the slight loss of stature that comes with aging. Either way, it explains why an all-ages average is lower than the figure for young adults.

The age pattern is a little different for women. Women aged 20 to 39 and 40 to 59 measured within about 1.1 cm of each other (162.98 cm and 161.85 cm), while the drop to the 60 to 79 group was larger, about 3.2 cm. For men, the steps were more even: roughly 3.0 cm between the two younger groups and another 2.0 cm to the oldest. The NCD-RisC series offers part of the explanation, since Canadian men's height rose faster than women's across the cohorts born from the 1930s to the 1970s.

The teenage figures are worth reading carefully. Boys aged 12 to 19 averaged 170.64 cm, about 7 cm below men in their 20s and 30s, because many were still growing. Girls aged 12 to 19 averaged 161.67 cm, only about 1.3 cm below women aged 20 to 39, reflecting the earlier end of growth in girls. Parents comparing a teenager with these numbers should remember that an age-band average blends 12-year-olds with 19-year-olds; a growth chart by exact age is a better tool for children.

Why "about 175 cm" is also correct

A Statistics Canada analysis in Health Reports compared measured and self-reported height across three national surveys. For the 2007 to 2009 CHMS, men aged 18 to 79 measured 175.1 cm and women 162.3 cm. The 2008 Canadian Community Health Survey, which measured a subsample of respondents, found 174.6 cm for men and 161.2 cm for women; the 2005 edition found 175.3 cm and 162.1 cm.

So if you've seen "the average Canadian man is 175 cm," that is an accurate description of all adult men measured in the late 2000s. The 178.1 cm figure on this page describes young men born in 1996. Both are true; they answer different questions.

Self-reported height in Canadian surveys

The same Statistics Canada table shows how much people round up. In every survey compared, self-reported height was higher than measured height for both men and women, and the difference was statistically significant each time.

Men overstated their height by about 1.1 to 1.3 cm on average, women by about 0.5 to 0.9 cm. That's small for any one person, but it adds up when self-reports are used to estimate obesity, because a taller reported height lowers the calculated body mass index. It's also the reason NCD-RisC and this site rely on measured data only. If you're checking your own height against Canadian averages, measure barefoot against a wall rather than using the figure on your driver's licence.

Canada and the United States

Canada and the United States have similar histories, diets and incomes, and their height figures are close. In the NCD-RisC estimates for the 1996 cohort, American men average 177.1 cm and women 163.5 cm, which leaves Canadian men about 1.0 cm taller and Canadian women 0.4 cm taller.

The US measurement survey points the same way. The National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) measured American men aged 20 and over at 175.1 cm and women at 161.2 cm in 2021 to 2023. Men aged 20 to 29 measured 176.3 cm and women 163.5 cm. Because the US and Canadian surveys were taken more than a decade apart and use different age groupings, a direct comparison is rough, but the broad picture is of two populations within a centimeter or so of each other.

The bigger story is historical. Our World in Data points out that North Americans led the world in height in the 19th century and then lost that lead to many European countries. In the NCD-RisC series, Canadian men born in 1896 were already 170.7 cm, but their century-long gain of 7.4 cm is modest compared with countries that started lower and improved faster.

Compared with Europe and Australia

Canada's peers among wealthy, mostly English- and French-speaking countries are taller on average, especially among men:

Canadian men are taller than British and American men in this series but about 1 to 2 cm shorter than French and Australian men, and 4.4 cm shorter than Dutch men. Canadian women sit at the lower end of this group, 0.5 cm below British women and 2 cm below Australian women. You can see the full ranking of 200 countries on the average height hub.

Canadians at average height and beyond

A Canadian man of 178 cm stands at about 5′10″, which is the same height as the 178 cm page on this site describes in detail. A woman of 164 cm is about 5′4½″.

Some well-known Canadians make useful reference points, using the heights listed on this site. Justin Bieber, born in 1994, is listed at 175.3 cm, a little below the 1996 cohort average for Canadian men. Drake, born in 1986, is listed at 182.9 cm, close to 5 cm above it. Ryan Reynolds, born in 1976, is listed at 188 cm, about 11 cm taller than the 177.1 cm average for Canadian men born that year.

Indigenous and regional data

Detailed, recent national height figures broken down by province or by Indigenous identity were not part of the Statistics Canada tables reviewed for this page, so this guide doesn't report them. Historical data do exist for some groups. Our World in Data's tables of height in foraging societies include Canadian Inuit measured in 1906 at about 164 cm, and a group it labels Fox Basin Inuit, measured in the 1970s, at about 166 cm. Those are small historical samples, not national averages, and they shouldn't be compared directly with modern survey figures.

Using these numbers

Use the 1996 cohort figures (178.1 cm and 163.9 cm) when you want to compare young Canadian adults with young adults elsewhere, since every country on this site uses the same method. Use the Statistics Canada figures when you need to describe the adult population as a whole, or a particular age group. And if you want to know where your own height falls, the height percentile calculator estimates your position relative to Canadian men or women born in 1996.