Average Height in the United States (Men & Women)

The average height in the United States

Americans born in 1996 reach an average adult height of 177.1 cm (5′10″) for men and 163.5 cm (5′4″) for women, according to the NCD Risk Factor Collaboration's global study of adult height. That puts American men 37th and American women 43rd among 200 countries. Americans are tall by world standards, but they are clearly behind the tallest European nations.

The government's own figure, from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, is a little lower. In the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) conducted from August 2021 to August 2023, the average man aged 20 and over measured 68.9 inches (175.1 cm), "just under 5 feet 9 inches," and the average woman 63.5 inches (161.2 cm). Both figures are correct. They measure slightly different things, as explained below.

Why two "average heights" exist

NCD-RisC reports the expected adult height of a birth cohort, everyone born in one year, as measured at age 18. The 1996 cohort is the latest in its data. CDC averages everyone aged 20 and over who was examined in a given survey period. That group includes people in their seventies and eighties, who belong to older, shorter cohorts and have also lost some height with age.

CDC's age breakdown shows the effect clearly. Men in their twenties average 176.3 cm, men in their seventies 172.4 cm, and men aged 80 and over 170.5 cm. Women fall from 163.5 cm in their twenties to 158.3 cm in their seventies and 156.8 cm at 80 and over. For young adults, the two sources agree closely. The CDC figure for women in their twenties exactly matches NCD-RisC's 163.5 cm for women born in 1996.

How NHANES measures height

NHANES is unusual in the quality of its measurements. Participants come from a complex, multistage probability sample of the civilian noninstitutionalized population. Trained staff measure standing height with a wall-mounted stadiometer to the nearest 0.1 cm, and values are entered automatically. The 2021–2023 analytic sample contained 8,545 people aged 2 and over, including 2,690 men and 3,307 women aged 20 and over. Results are weighted to represent the national population.

The full American height distribution

Because NHANES publishes percentiles, it is possible to say how common a given height is.

A few practical takeaways follow:

• Six feet is roughly the top 15% of men. The 85th percentile, 183.0 cm, is almost exactly 6′0″.
• Women of 5′7″ (170 cm) are taller than about 90% of adult women. The 90th percentile is 170.4 cm.
• The middle half of men falls between about 170 and 180 cm, and the middle half of women between about 156 and 166 cm.

The height percentile calculator runs this kind of comparison for any height, and the 5′9″ page shows the typical American man next to well-known people of the same height.

From the world's tallest to the middle of the rich-country pack

The American height story is not about catching up. It is about leading early and then being overtaken.

In the 1896 cohort, NCD-RisC found American men among the tallest in the world. Along with men in Sweden and Norway, they averaged over 171 cm, about 18–19 cm taller than men in Laos. American women, at over 158 cm, were among the tallest women alongside women in Norway, Iceland and American Samoa. The United States is also one of only six countries with measured data for people born before 1896.

Since then, Americans have gained only 6.0 cm (men) and 5.0 cm (women). NCD-RisC states that the United States had the smallest gain in height of any high-income country and was the first to plateau. Men born in 1956 were already at 177.2 cm, and the following 40 years of cohorts added almost nothing. Over the same century, Dutch men went from 169.4 cm to 182.5 cm.

Our World in Data, summarizing the research on why, notes that North Americans were the tallest people in the world in the 19th century but fell behind many European countries in the 20th. It cites studies pointing to poorer nutrition, weaker social safety nets, less comprehensive health insurance and higher inequality. NCD-RisC adds another detail: in the United States, height rose less than the global median while body-mass index rose a great deal. In countries such as Japan, Singapore and France, height rose faster than the median with little change in BMI.

Historical records

America's long height record comes largely from soldiers. Our World in Data notes that conscript data can mislead in either direction. In countries with conscription, measured heights rose over time. In the United States, where military service was mostly voluntary, measured soldier heights fell. Researchers have to correct for who chose to enlist. NCD-RisC lists the USA among the countries, along with Europe and Japan, where men's height trends have been reconstructed for up to 250 years from military, convict and slave records.

Height by age group in today's adults

CDC's 2021–2023 tables also show how average height changes from one age group to the next. That reflects two things at once: older Americans were born into shorter cohorts, and adults lose some stature in later life.

For men, the first three age groups are almost identical, at about 176 cm. That fits the NCD-RisC finding that American men born from the 1950s onward reached roughly the same adult height. The drop only begins with men in their fifties and becomes clear in their seventies. Women show a steadier decline across age groups, falling about 1 cm per decade through middle age before dropping faster after 70.

This is why a single "average American height" can mislead. A 25-year-old man of 176 cm is exactly average for his age group, while a man of the same height in his eighties would be taller than roughly four in five men his age (the 75th and 85th percentiles for men 80 and over are 175.0 cm and 177.9 cm). CDC notes that comparable results have been reported from its surveys going back to 1960.

Differences by race and ethnicity

The United States is a diverse country, and CDC publishes heights by race and Hispanic origin. The most recent breakdown, from NHANES 2015–2018, covers adults aged 20 and over:

White and Black Americans average almost the same height. Asian and Hispanic Americans average about 6 cm shorter. Generational differences show up within groups too. Asian American men aged 20–39 average 172.9 cm, compared with 166.3 cm for those 60 and over. Mexican American men average 170.4 cm, about 1.4 cm more than the 169.0 cm NCD-RisC estimates for men born in Mexico in 1996. The Mexico page looks at that comparison in more detail.

Child growth and stunting

Stunting, meaning children too short for their age, is rare in the United States. The WHO and UNICEF survey estimates compiled by Our World in Data put US stunting at 3.1% in 1991 and 3.8% in 2022. Those levels are close to what a healthy reference population would show, so childhood undernutrition at the population level does not explain the US height plateau. Researchers instead look at the quality of diets and at health and income inequality, as described above.

CDC's growth data also shows when American teenagers reach adult height. In the 2015–2018 tables, boys average 68.9–69.0 inches from age 17 to 19, about 175 cm, and girls level off at about 63.7–64.2 inches (about 162–163 cm) from age 16 onward. Girls stop growing around two years earlier than boys.

The US compared with similar countries

Canadian men are 1 cm taller than American men, and British men about the same height. Dutch men are 5.4 cm taller. In NCD-RisC's 1996 cohort, Australia is the only non-European country whose men make the world's top 25, and the United States is not on that list.

American height in everyday life

The CDC averages are the basis for many American design standards. The same NHANES reports also give average weights: 199.0 pounds for men and 171.8 pounds for women in 2021–2023. Clothing, car interiors and workplace equipment are built around these body sizes. Famous Americans show how much variation there is around the average. On this site, Barack Obama is listed at 187 cm (6′2″), Tom Cruise at 170 cm (5′7″) and Taylor Swift at 180 cm (5′11″). Obama is close to the 95th percentile for American men, Cruise is near the 25th, and Swift is well above the 95th percentile for American women.

For Americans, the most useful reference point is the CDC measurement for their own age group. For comparisons with other countries, the NCD-RisC cohort figure is the better choice, because it uses the same method in all 200 countries. Both are listed on the average height by country hub.