Average adult female height ranges from 170.36cm (5’7”) in the Netherlands down to 149.4cm (4’11”) in Guatemala, among the 69 countries in this dataset. Northern and Central European countries cluster above 165cm (5’5”), while parts of South and Southeast Asia and Central America average below 158cm (5’2”). The calculator below ranks your own height against any country here.
Average female height by country
Rather than a plain top-10, this table spreads across the full range — the tallest averages, several large or frequently searched countries in the middle, and the shortest averages — so the real spread is visible in one place.
| Rank (of 69) | Country | Average female height |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Netherlands | 170.36cm (5’7”) |
| 2 | Montenegro | 170.0cm (5’7”) |
| 3 | Denmark | 169.47cm (5’6.5”) |
| 29 | United Kingdom | 163.94cm (5’4.5”) |
| 32 | United States | 163.3cm (5’4.5”) |
| 30 | China | 163.46cm (5’4.5”) |
| 35 | Brazil | 162.41cm (5’4”) |
| 52 | Japan | 158.5cm (5’2.5”) |
| 59 | India | 155.18cm (5’1”) |
| 62 | Indonesia | 154.36cm (5’1”) |
| 68 | Nepal | 150.9cm (4’11.5”) |
| 69 | Guatemala | 149.4cm (4’11”) |
This dataset’s own simple average across all 69 countries is 161.9cm for women — an unweighted mean of the countries in this file, not a population-weighted global figure. Because the subset leans European relative to world population, this figure sits a little higher than a true global average would.
Compared with the average female in United Kingdom
0.9 cm
shorter than the average of 163.9 cm.
United Kingdom ranks #29 of 69 countries in this dataset (40 have a lower average).
Top 10 tallest-average countries (female)
| Rank | Country | Average height |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Netherlands | 170.4 cm |
| 2 | Montenegro | 170 cm |
| 3 | Denmark | 169.5 cm |
| 4 | Iceland | 168.9 cm |
| 5 | Latvia | 168.8 cm |
| 6 | Estonia | 168.7 cm |
| 7 | Serbia | 168.3 cm |
| 8 | Czechia | 168 cm |
| 9 | Lithuania | 167.6 cm |
| 10 | Bosnia and Herzegovina | 167.5 cm |
The calculator above also lists the top 10 tallest-average countries for women in this dataset, and shows exactly where your chosen country ranks among all 69 — useful if the country you care about isn’t in the curated table above.
Where this data comes from
These figures trace back to the NCD Risk Factor Collaboration (NCD-RisC), the standard reference for global height data, using its 2019 cohort for the age-19 population — the usual convention for “adult” height, since growth is essentially complete by then.
NCD-RisC’s own raw dataset could not be downloaded directly when this file was compiled, so the numbers here come from two secondary sources that cite NCD-RisC — World Population Review and heightcomparisoncalculator.com — cross-checked against each other where their country lists overlap. This page is upfront that it’s a secondary compilation, not a first-party NCD-RisC download, and that it covers 69 countries rather than NCD-RisC’s full set of roughly 200.
That cross-checking step matters for accuracy: where the two secondary sources agreed on a country’s figure, it was used directly; the note in this site’s dataset file explains the same process for the male figures used in the companion article.
Why average female height varies by country
Height at population level reflects a combination of genetics and environment. Genetic background differs between populations, and so does the environment a population grows up in — nutrition through childhood and adolescence, and access to healthcare that prevents or manages illnesses which can affect growth.
Countries near the top of this list have generally had strong, consistent nutrition and healthcare access for decades. Countries further down have often seen more variability in food security or health infrastructure, historically or currently. That’s as far as this article goes on causes — genetics, nutrition and healthcare access are the standard explanations cited in the literature, and nothing here claims more than that.
These same three factors also explain the gap between men and women within a single country, alongside the underlying sex difference in growth hormone and puberty timing — nutrition and healthcare access affect both sexes’ final height, but don’t remove the sex gap itself.
The regional pattern in this dataset
Looking down the full 69-country list, a rough regional pattern emerges, mirroring the pattern for men. Northern and Central European countries cluster near the top of the female list too, generally averaging above 165cm. Several countries in South and Southeast Asia and Central America sit toward the bottom, averaging below 155cm. The Americas, the Middle East and Africa span a wide middle range rather than sitting at either extreme.
This describes the 69 countries actually included here, not every country in those regions — many countries in each region aren’t in this dataset yet, and any regional label hides real country-to-country variation underneath it.
For the equivalent picture for men, see the companion article on average height for men by country, covering the same 69 countries with the same method.
Ranking vs percentile — not the same thing
The table above ranks a country’s published mean female height against every other country in this dataset: position 1 is the tallest average, position 69 the shortest. That’s a comparison between national averages, not a statement about any individual — a tall woman in a “shorter-average” country can easily be taller than a shorter woman in a “taller-average” one.
If you want to know where a specific height sits within a population’s own spread, rather than how one country’s average compares to another’s, this site’s percentile calculator (built on WHO and CDC reference data) is the right tool for that question. That calculator asks for age as well as height, since a percentile only makes sense once you’re comparing like with like — a specific age and sex against a matching reference population, not just a raw height figure on its own.
Using this data sensibly
A national average collapses an entire population into one number, which hides real variation — across regions, across ethnic groups, and across generations, since average height in most populations has shifted over time (the “secular trend” in height, well documented in the literature). Two people from the same country can differ from that average by a wide margin in either direction and still be entirely typical.
Use the figures here as a starting comparison, not a precise personal benchmark. To see your own height set directly against a specific country’s average — and where that average ranks among the other 68 — use the calculator above.
Average height also isn’t fixed over time. Many populations have grown taller across generations as nutrition and healthcare access improved — a pattern researchers call the secular trend in height. A 2019 cohort figure reflects people who grew up decades earlier, so it describes a generation’s outcome rather than a prediction for children born today.
Method and sources
Source: NCD-RisC’s 2019 cohort data (mean height, age 19), as compiled by World Population Review and heightcomparisoncalculator.com — see the note above on why this is a secondary compilation rather than a direct NCD-RisC download. Coverage: 69 countries, a partial subset of NCD-RisC’s roughly 200-country dataset. Last reviewed 2026-09-19.
Ranks in the table above come from sorting all 69 countries’ average female heights from tallest to shortest; “Rank (of 69)” is each country’s position in that order. Where a country isn’t shown in the curated table, the calculator above covers the full 69-country list and its ranking.
Try the average height by country tool to rank your own height against any country in this dataset, or open the comparison board to see two national averages stood side by side.