ATLAS · FIELD GUIDE
Average Height of Women by Country, Explained
The average woman is about 159 cm tall worldwide, ranging from around 170 cm in the Netherlands to 151 cm in Guatemala. What shapes the figure, and why does it follow much the same pattern as men's height?
The average woman worldwide is about 159 cm tall — roughly twelve centimetres shorter than the average man, a gap found in every population. On top of that universal difference, the figure varies between countries from around 170 cm in the Netherlands to 151 cm in Guatemala. Like the men's map, it is a record of how well a country has fed and cared for its children.
What the number measures
The map shows the mean height of women measured at age 19, the age by which adult stature is essentially reached. It draws on the same source as the men's map: the NCD Risk Factor Collaboration's pooled analysis of more than two thousand studies covering 65 million people across 200 countries.
The same pattern, a lower level
The women's map looks much like the men's, shifted down by about twelve centimetres. The same countries tend to rank tallest and shortest on both, because the same forces shape both:
- Childhood nutrition through the years of growth;
- Health in early life, so more of a child's energy goes into growing;
- Time, as good conditions compound across generations.
The gap between women and men — about twelve centimetres — is biological, set by the different effects of sex hormones in puberty. What the map adds is the variation between countries on top of that gap, and that variation, like men's, comes mostly from childhood conditions rather than genes. The proof is the same: average heights have risen sharply over a century, far too fast for genetics to explain.
How to read the map
Deeper colour means a taller average. The pattern echoes the men's map:
- tallest (around 167–170 cm) across the Netherlands and Northern and Eastern Europe;
- shortest (around 151–156 cm) in Guatemala and parts of South and Southeast Asia;
- a broad middle across the Americas, the Middle East and much of Africa.
Read each value as the average for women born around 2000 in that country — a snapshot of childhood conditions, not a fixed trait. Every value carries its source and year.
For the companion figure, see the average height of men. For related measures of early-life conditions, see life expectancy and the median age of a country's population.
Frequently asked questions
What does the women's height map show?
The average (mean) height of women measured at age 19 — the age by which adult stature is essentially reached. The figures come from the NCD Risk Factor Collaboration, the same pooled study of 65 million people across 200 countries that produces the men's map. Each value is the most recent estimate, for the 2019 cohort, and carries its source and year.
How does it compare with the map for men?
Very closely in pattern, lower in level. Women average about 12 centimetres shorter than men worldwide, and that gap is fairly consistent from country to country. The same places tend to rank tallest and shortest on both maps, because the same forces — childhood nutrition and health — drive both. The Netherlands leads both; the shortest averages are in similar regions, though the individual countries at the very bottom differ slightly.
Which countries have the tallest and shortest women?
The tallest, around 170 cm, are in the Netherlands and across Northern and Eastern Europe. The shortest, near 151 cm, are in Guatemala and parts of South and Southeast Asia. As with men, this tracks childhood nutrition and the burden of early-life illness rather than anything fixed about the populations, and heights in many shorter-statured countries have been rising as living standards improve.
Why are women shorter than men on average?
The difference is biological — driven by the different effects of sex hormones during puberty — and is found in every population. What the map shows is how the level of women's height varies between countries on top of that universal gap, and that variation, like men's, comes mostly from childhood nutrition and health rather than genetics.
Is the difference between countries genetic?
Within a single well-fed population, individual differences are largely genetic. But the differences between countries, and the rise over the last century, are driven far more by environment. Average heights have climbed substantially as childhood nutrition and healthcare have improved — too fast to be genetic. The map is best read as a record of childhood conditions, not a ranking of peoples.
Where does the data come from?
From the NCD Risk Factor Collaboration (NCD-RisC), coordinated through Imperial College London and published in The Lancet in 2020 — the standard authoritative source for human height, and the same data Our World in Data republishes. It is free and openly licensed. Each value carries its source and year.
SEE IT ON THE MAP
Everything in this guide is on the live Atlas map.