Average Height by Country (Males >20 years)
If basketball popularity coincided with the average height of the country’s population, then Scandinavia should have many more professional basketball players.
At least according to some data that was compiled by one of our forum members, tpraseri (see Average Height by Country thread).
Tpraseri compiled data from across the internet, listed out the average heights of 82 countries around the world. You can see the full list at the bottom of this post.
Netherlands the tallest country
At an average height of 5-foot-11 (181,0 cm), the Netherlands has the tallest average height amongst males twenty years old and older.
Holland was followed by #2 Iceland (5-10.8, 179,8), and then the three Scandinavian countries Norway (5-10.7, 179,7), Sweden (5-10.6, 179,3), and Denmark (5-10.4, 178,8) rounded out the top five.
And who have these countries have produced?
The Netherlands has been decently successful with Rik Smits, Dan Gadzuric, Francisco Elson, Swen Nater, Geert Hammink, Henk Norel, and Serge Zwikker.
Sweden has the recently-drafted Jonas Jerebko, Iceland sent Petur Gudmundsson to the NBA in the 1980s and Jón Stefánsson, and Lars Hansen of Denmark.
And who would have assumed that #43 South Korea (5-7.3, 171,0) would, on average, be taller than #48 Portugal (5-7.1, 170,5), #56 Brazil (5-6.7, 169,5), #69 Mongolia (5-5.5, 166,4), and #75 Nigeria (5-5, 165,0),?
Asia has the shortest countries
Asia owned the six shortest countries on the list, mostly Southeast Asian countries.
The only country shorter than #81 Indonesia (161.5, 5’3.6) and the #80 Philippines (162.0, 5’3.8) was #82 Cambodia clocked in as the country with the shortest average height for males at just 160,3 (5’3.1″).
To see the full chart, see below:
| Countries | Height (cm) | Height (in) | Population |
| Netherlands | 181,0 | 5’11.3″ | 16,318,199 |
| Iceland | 179,8 | 5’10.8″ | 319,355 |
| Norway | 179,7 | 5’10.7″ | 4,737,171 |
| Sweden | 179,3 | 5’10.6″ | 8,986,400 |
| Denmark | 178,8 | 5’10.4″ | 5,413,392 |
| Finland | 178,4 | 5’10.2″ | 5,214,512 |
| Czech Republic | 178,3 | 5’10.2″ | 10,246,178 |
| Slovenia | 178,1 | 5’10.1″ | 2,007,711 |
| Luxembourg | 178,0 | 5’10.1″ | 486,006 |
| Croatia | 177,6 | 5’9.9″ | 4,496,869 |
| Germany | 177,4 | 5’9.8″ | 82,424,609 |
| Estonia | 177,1 | 5’9.7″ | 1,307,605 |
| Austria | 177,0 | 5’9.7″ | 8,174,762 |
| Belgium | 176,6 | 5’9.5″ | 10,348,276 |
| Serbia | 176,5 | 5’9.5″ | 10,159,046 |
| Switzerland | 176,5 | 5’9.5″ | 7,450,867 |
| United States | 176,4 | 5’9.4″ | 293,027,571 |
| Australia | 176,3 | 5’9.4″ | 19,913,144 |
| Poland | 176,0 | 5’9.3″ | 38,626,349 |
| Greece | 175,7 | 5’9.2″ | 10,647,529 |
| New Zealand | 175,5 | 5’9.1″ | 3,993,817 |
| United Kingdom | 175,4 | 5’9.1″ | 60,270,708 |
| Hungary | 175,3 | 5’9″ | 10,106,017 |
| Ukraine | 175,0 | 5’8.9″ | 47,732,079 |
| Ireland | 175,0 | 5’8.9″ | 3,969,558 |
| Russia | 175,0 | 5’8.9″ | 143,782,338 |
| Israel | 175,0 | 5’8.9″ | 7,112,359 |
| Lithuania | 175,0 | 5’8.9″ | 3,565,205 |
| Canada | 174,3 | 5’8.6″ | 32,507,874 |
| Lebanon | 174,2 | 5’8.6″ | 3,777,218 |
| Turkey | 174,1 | 5’8.5″ | 68,893,918 |
| France | 174,1 | 5’8.5″ | 60,424,213 |
| Uzbekistan | 173,4 | 5’8.3″ | 26,410,416 |
| Italy | 173,2 | 5’8.2″ | 58,057,477 |
| Senegal | 173,0 | 5’8.1″ | 10,852,147 |
| Jamaica | 172,8 | 5’8″ | 2,804,332 |
| Mali | 172,5 | 5’7.9″ | 12,324,029 |
| Spain | 172,0 | 5’7.7″ | 40,280,780 |
| Romania | 172,0 | 5’7.7″ | 22,355,551 |
| Azerbaijan | 172,0 | 5’7.7″ | 8,177,717 |
| Uruguay | 171,8 | 5’7.6″ | 3,399,237 |
| Argentina | 171,3 | 5’7.4″ | 39,144,753 |
| South Korea | 171,0 | 5’7.3″ | 48,598,175 |
| Syria | 171,0 | 5’7.3″ | 18,016,874 |
| Morocco | 170,7 | 5’7.2″ | 32,209,101 |
| Iran | 170,6 | 5’7.2″ | 67,503,205 |
| Portugal | 170,5 | 5’7.1″ | 10,524,145 |
| Côte d’Ivoire | 170,4 | 5’7.1″ | 18,373,060 |
| Egypt | 170,3 | 5’7″ | 76,117,421 |
| Tunisia | 170,3 | 5’7″ | 9,974,722 |
| Algeria | 170,2 | 5’7″ | 32,129,324 |
| South Africa | 170,0 | 5’6.9″ | 42,718,530 |
| Cameroon | 170,0 | 5’6.9″ | 16,063,678 |
| Gambia | 170,0 | 5’6.9″ | 1,735,464 |
| Ghana | 169,8 | 5’6.9″ | 23,382,848 |
| Brazil | 169,5 | 5’6.7″ | 184,101,109 |
| Colombia | 169,5 | 5’6.7″ | 42,310,775 |
| Taiwan | 169,3 | 5’6.7″ | 22,920,946 |
| Chile | 169,2 | 5’6.6″ | 15,823,957 |
| Venezuela | 169,0 | 5’6.5″ | 23,542,649 |
| Paraguay | 169,0 | 5’6.5″ | 6,191,368 |
| Japan | 168,6 | 5’6.4″ | 127,333,002 |
| Hong Kong | 168,5 | 5’6.3″ | 7,210,505 |
| China | 168,3 | 5’6.3″ | 1,298,847,624 |
| Mexico | 167,5 | 5’5.9″ | 104,959,594 |
| Pakistan | 167,0 | 5’5.7″ | 159,196,336 |
| Singapore | 166,6 | 5’5.6″ | 4,353,893 |
| Thailand | 166,4 | 5’5.5″ | 64,865,523 |
| Mongolia | 166,4 | 5’5.5″ | 2,751,314 |
| Malaysia | 166,0 | 5’5.4″ | 23,522,482 |
| Sri Lanka | 166,0 | 5’5.4″ | 20,064,776 |
| Malawi | 166,0 | 5’5.4″ | 13,931,831 |
| Bahrain | 165,6 | 5’5.2″ | 718,306 |
| Iraq | 165,4 | 5’5.1″ | 25,374,691 |
| Nigeria | 165,0 | 5’5″ | 138,283,240 |
| Peru | 164,3 | 5’4.7″ | 27,544,305 |
| North Korea | 163,8 | 5’4.5″ | 22,697,553 |
| India | 162,3 | 5’3.9″ | 1,065,070,607 |
| Vietnam | 162,1 | 5’3.8″ | 82,689,518 |
| Philippines | 162,0 | 5’3.8″ | 86,241,697 |
| Indonesia | 161,5 | 5’3.6″ | 238,452,952 |
| Cambodia | 160,3 | 5’3.1″ | 13,363,421 |
* For the references used to compile this data, go here.
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November 26th, 2009 at 8:35 am
Thank you for writing valuable information regarding the topic. I am an admirer of your website. Keep up the good job.
November 29th, 2009 at 11:04 am
northern chinese 18-25 guys are 6’1 (185cm) tall in average. im 6’4 and im not towering over people in my high school
December 26th, 2009 at 12:40 pm
Thats true. I have a friend whos around 6 ft tall, and he has some chinese lineage. He said something about an ethnic group called Hoka or something. Not the tallest on earth, but quite tall. Im not sure whats up w/ my school. I live in a mostly dutch town in Iowa, and i stand a head and shoulders taller than most at 6’5.
February 21st, 2010 at 6:01 pm
data for Mongolian is for 14 year old highschool students. For 18-24 average is 179cm (2007) census.
February 28th, 2010 at 12:01 am
Canada = 5 ft 9 and a half for male between 25-50
December 20th, 2010 at 3:08 am
hmmm very intersting. White folks are the tallest… then blacks and the reason why south korea is tall for an Asian country(800 pound gorilla in the room). Is because their well feed for the past 60 years. Unlike there fesis throwing neighbors to the South.
December 29th, 2010 at 4:24 pm
Acces to food, it’s quality an the quality of life play a major factor in human hight.
I’m Romanian. Look what happened the past 2 generations with improvement in life quality.
Granfathers: 167cm, 168cm Granmothers: 151cm, 160cm Father: 172cm Mother: 160cm
Me (23 y old): 180cm My cousins (22 – 28 y old): 1 shortest 175cm, all other 5: 180 – 186cm.
New generations are much taller. Me at 180cm i’m very average.
January 1st, 2011 at 3:11 pm
[...] Originally Posted by CardSharp Height is also correlated with industrialization and nutrition so it's hard to say what is genetics and what is environment. I kinda doubt I'd be as tall if I stayed in China. The food here is not really that healthy but it's higher in protein than what I ate in China. I don't agree, China is industrialized but not developed, Japan is both industrialized and developed, both have similar heights, but the difference between Chinese/Japanese and Koreans is a statistically significant 25% of a standard deviation. This can be ascribed to genetic factors. I should learn more about statistics, then I can more quantitatively describe this phenomena. Average Height by Country (Males >20 years) | [...]
January 25th, 2011 at 4:32 am
[...] research: – InterBasket – International Basketball & Euroleague Forum China 171,8 India 164,5 Average Height by Country (Males >20 years) | China 168,3 India 162,3 How many Chinese women want to marry small, short, weak, low IQ, [...]
June 6th, 2011 at 11:35 pm
Interesting. I’m Mongolian and my height is 168cm and I was shortest in university.
June 18th, 2011 at 4:20 am
maybe, mongolian avarege height posted here is not true
June 18th, 2011 at 4:22 am
This is strange… very Strange. This census is really outdated. I have been to India, Japan and China. We were doing a height census in rural, and urban areas and found the following:
India: Males (29>) – 178.817
Young Males (16-28)- 182.887
China: Males (29>) – 179.823
Young Males (14-28)- 188.887
Japan: Males (29>) – 178.721
Young Males (16-28)- 185.751
Is this info been given to us really uptodate? Us we did to the Census this is what we found.
July 7th, 2011 at 4:30 am
This is not true at all. It all depends on the age of the sample. Most of asian countries including s.korea, japan and china are much less. The sample you have taken must be young generation only, and some other countries have way higher height that you represented here…
August 21st, 2011 at 10:11 pm
The Vietnamese height is soooo right. If I calculate the average height of me and the other 3 people in my family I get roughly 5″3.5 … Sooo my family is actually below average! Haha
August 22nd, 2011 at 7:59 am
average heigh in iran is 5’8″ your chart is not very exactly but thank’s for chart
August 31st, 2011 at 8:48 am
This date is almost correct.
The tallest European are Dutch(185cm)
The tallest Asian are South Korean(175cm)
The tallest African are Kenya
October 8th, 2011 at 4:28 am
The info on Serbs is way off!! Average Serbian and Montenegrin (most of them are Dinaric type = very tall and bony) men’s height is 186.5cm and women’s 171cm. This makes Serbian men the tallest men in Europe. Statistics are not really necessary, you just need to stand and watch people pass by in downtown Belgrade and it will very soon become obvious that the average height of people is way above any other European country with the exception of Netherlands. Dutch men and women are also exceptionally tall, but I believe I saw statistics for men – 185cm and women – 174cm. So, this chart’s is drastically incorrect! Careful citing it anywhere!
October 14th, 2011 at 11:31 am
in wikipedia statu people are way higher.lithuania avarage is fake.in our schools say even doctor says that average height is 181.im 16years old.my height is177 and im average in class.my height should be181.i’ve been in sweden 6months maybe.and have seen many asians enough to imagine their height.their average is atleast half of head less than our average.aveage heigjt on WORLD is 174 also the best and the most healthy height for human is 175- 180
November 1st, 2011 at 9:14 am