What Height Is Considered Tall

Height is an odd thing. Although it is solely the measurement for which we measure how tall we are, it is also highly dependent on your genetics, your upbringing, and a thousand other factors that change depending on where you live and the life you lead.

People have strong emotions about their height as well, with many people using it as a defining characteristic for themselves or as a thing they want to avoid talking about.

This is because there are various stereotypes and stigmas that can be attached to height.

However, the vast spectrum of various people’s heights from around the globe is both odd and fascinating.

We automatically associate different people from different countries with an assigned height, which may be all together wrong for that group of people but correct for another group we would have assigned a different stereotypical height.

So, from this huge sea of differing sizes, what do we as a society consider tall? Does it change depending on where you are?

Would a normal person be considered tall somewhere but short in another place? In this article, we will look at height more closely and determine what height is considered tall.

What Height Is Tall?

To answer this question properly, we must first determine the two big differences in height, that between men and women.

The differences between men and women is a debate that has been raging since the dawn of time, with some consensus between academics over some differences, some highly charged arguments that often have no bearing in reality, and some arguments are so strange and baffling it beggars belief.

Nonetheless, there is one area where we can all agree that there is some truth, that those assigned male at birth frequently reach a height greater than those assigned female.

As such, there will be a different average height for men and a different average height for women.

This changes the perceptions of what is considered tall, as with such a huge disparity between the two gender’s heights, it would not be accurate to group them together.

So, we will look at each gender’s height individually to assess what is tall for each gender.

What Height Is Tall For Men?

The average height of a man is roughly 69 inches (or 5.75 feet) in modern America. To most people, this may actually seem off, but this is the exact mean of the different heights of people.

There may be a significant portion of the population who are taller than this bringing the average up, but there is also a significant portion of the population who are shorter than this bringing the average down.

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This is also quite different from a century ago. For those unaware, humanity as a species has been gradually getting taller for most of its existence, at a very slow pace but continuously nonetheless.

About 100 years ago, the average height of a man in America was 67 inches (or 5.58 feet). A change of 2 inches in 100 years may not seem like much, but in terms of biology, that is an incredible rate of pace.

This can also be seen in expectations of children’s height from their parents. In the past, boys were expected to be taller than their fathers, but in today’s world we expect our kids to be as tall as us and maybe a tad taller.

What Height Is Tall For Women?

The average height of a woman is 65 inches (or 5.41 feet) in modern America. Again, like with the mean height of men this may seem off or wrong somehow, as there are plenty of tall women in our country. But again, it is the mean of every woman in the US.

The interesting thing about this height is that it has changed very little compared to the men’s height. In 1960, the average height of a woman in America was 64 inches (or 5.33 feet), which means that men have gained more height than women in the last century.

People might blow this off as an odd thing, but nothing to sneeze over, however this doesn’t fit with other countries in the western world.

Most other countries, especially in Europe, have increased the height of both sexes dramatically.

In fact, the average height of a woman in the continent of Europe is 68 inches (or 5.66 feet), about 4 inches taller than American women.

This is an interesting phenomenon that also includes men, as other groups of western men tend to be taller than Americans, and though it is mostly due to genetics, it would be interesting to see what other factors are at play to cause this.

Would I Be Considered Tall By My Peers?

If you are tall, you probably already know it. You know it because of every class photo, on clothes shopping trips where you are the only one unable to buy clothes, or even be crow barred into a small car. Being tall makes you stand out, and most people who are tall recognize it immediately.

Your height should make no difference to you whatsoever, unless you sit on the extremes of being short or tall, due to our society’s sole accommodation for the average. Still, it is a fascinating thing to know and learn.

Tallest Country In The World

Before we leave you, we thought it would be nice to put in some facts about tallness, specifically what are the tallest countries in the world for men and women.

Tallest Country In The World For Men

We think that most people will know what this country is, as they are renowned for having exceptionally tall people.

The country with the tallest men in the world is the Netherlands, with the average height of men being 72 inches (or 6 foot).

The country with the second tallest is their close neighbor Belgium, which again is no surprise considering the proximity.

Tallest Country In The World For Women

For many years, the tallest country in the world for women was the same as men, but that has changed now to a place that seemed to have come completely out of the blue.

Latvia now has the tallest women in the world, with an average height of 68.4 inches (or 5.7 feet).

The second place to Latvia is, of course, the Netherlands, which again is hardly surprising.

Final Thoughts

Height is something that humans take great note of in our day to day, but honestly your entire height mostly comes down to genetics.

It is part of the reason it makes height a fascinating thing to look at, as we can see different groups of people from different countries maintain a variety of averages that may be completely different from closely related groups.

However, if you are worried about being too tall or too short, I wouldn’t. It is just a thing that makes you who you are.