Original photo by andreswd/ iStock
The average American woman is 5 feet, 3.5 inches tall, with genetics playing the largest role in determining a person’s height. Roughly 11% of women in the U.S. are taller than 5 feet, 7 inches, and just 1% reach a height of 6 feet — which explains why seemingly every tall person gets asked if they play basketball, as the average height among WNBA players is 6 feet.
The average female height in the U.S. is also fairly average in the grand scheme of things, as women in the Netherlands (the tallest country for both men and women) stand an average of 5 feet, 7 inches, and their counterparts in Guatemala (whose women are the shortest) are comparatively diminutive at 4 feet, 11 inches on average. The shortest woman in the world, Jyoti Amge, is 2 feet tall; in 2024, she met Rumeysa Gelgi, whose 7-foot stature makes her the tallest woman in the world.
Oops, incorrect!
It's a factGeorge Costanza wasn’t a fluke — shorter men really are more likely to go bald, as the genes that cause each are linked to one another.
It’s estimated that about 80% of a person’s height is determined by the DNA sequences they’ve inherited, while environmental factors (especially nutrition) are responsible for the remainder. More than 700 of those gene variants — including the ones that affect cartilage in growth plates in the legs and arms — have been discovered, and more are expected to be identified in the future. As for men, the average American stands 5 feet, 8 inches, while the average male height in the Netherlands is 6 feet and in Timor-Leste, the shortest country for men, the average is 5 feet, 3 inches.
Numbers Don't Lie
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The longest bone in the human body is the ______.
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The longest bone in the human body is the femur.
James Madison was the shortest U.S. president.
James Madison was the fourth U.S. president, serving two terms from 1809 to 1817. At 5 feet, 4 inches, he was also the shortest. His wife, Dolley Madison, was 3 inches taller than him. Other relatively short presidents include Benjamin Harrison (5 feet, 6 inches), Martin Van Buren (5 feet, 6 inches), William McKinley (5 feet, 7 inches), and John Adams (5 feet, 7 inches), while Abraham Lincoln remains the tallest at a statuesque 6 feet, 4 inches.
Michael Nordine is a writer and editor living in Denver. A native Angeleno, he has two cats and wishes he had more.
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