Average adult height in Europe ranges from 183.78cm (6’0.5”) for men in the Netherlands down to 174.37cm (5’8.5”) for men in Portugal. Across the 30 European countries in this dataset, men average 179.9cm (5’10.8”) and women 166.2cm (5’5.4”). The Netherlands leads for both sexes.
Average height in Europe, ranked
The list ranks 30 European countries by average male height. Figures are NCD-RisC’s 2019 cohort estimates (adults who turned 19 in 2019), as held in this site’s dataset. Women’s rankings differ slightly, and the last column shows the gap between the sexes.
| Rank | Country | Men | Women | Gap (men minus women) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Netherlands | 183.78cm (6’0.5”) | 170.36cm (5’7”) | 13.4cm |
| 2 | Montenegro | 183.30cm (6’0”) | 170.00cm (5’7”) | 13.3cm |
| 3 | Estonia | 182.80cm (6’0”) | 168.70cm (5’6.5”) | 14.1cm |
| 4 | Bosnia and Herzegovina | 182.50cm (6’0”) | 167.50cm (5’6”) | 15.0cm |
| 5 | Iceland | 182.10cm (5’11.5”) | 168.91cm (5’6.5”) | 13.2cm |
| 6 | Denmark | 181.89cm (5’11.5”) | 169.47cm (5’6.5”) | 12.4cm |
| 7 | Latvia | 181.20cm (5’11.5”) | 168.80cm (5’6.5”) | 12.4cm |
| 8 | Czechia | 181.19cm (5’11.5”) | 167.96cm (5’6”) | 13.2cm |
| 9 | Slovakia | 181.00cm (5’11.5”) | 167.10cm (5’6”) | 13.9cm |
| 10 | Ukraine | 180.98cm (5’11.5”) | 166.62cm (5’5.5”) | 14.4cm |
| 11 | Croatia | 180.76cm (5’11”) | 166.80cm (5’5.5”) | 14.0cm |
| 12 | Serbia | 180.74cm (5’11”) | 168.29cm (5’6.5”) | 12.5cm |
| 13 | Lithuania | 180.70cm (5’11”) | 167.60cm (5’6”) | 13.1cm |
| 14 | Poland | 180.69cm (5’11”) | 165.78cm (5’5.5”) | 14.9cm |
| 15 | Finland | 180.57cm (5’11”) | 166.48cm (5’5.5”) | 14.1cm |
| 16 | Norway | 180.48cm (5’11”) | 166.45cm (5’5.5”) | 14.0cm |
| 17 | Sweden | 180.46cm (5’11”) | 166.67cm (5’5.5”) | 13.8cm |
| 18 | Germany | 180.28cm (5’11”) | 166.18cm (5’5.5”) | 14.1cm |
| 19 | Greece | 179.26cm (5’10.5”) | 165.81cm (5’5.5”) | 13.4cm |
| 20 | Belgium | 179.09cm (5’10.5”) | 163.40cm (5’4.5”) | 15.7cm |
| 21 | Ireland | 179.04cm (5’10.5”) | 164.50cm (5’5”) | 14.5cm |
| 22 | Switzerland | 178.73cm (5’10.5”) | 164.33cm (5’4.5”) | 14.4cm |
| 23 | France | 178.60cm (5’10.5”) | 164.49cm (5’5”) | 14.1cm |
| 24 | Austria | 178.52cm (5’10.5”) | 166.93cm (5’5.5”) | 11.6cm |
| 25 | United Kingdom | 178.21cm (5’10”) | 163.94cm (5’4.5”) | 14.3cm |
| 26 | Romania | 177.82cm (5’10”) | 164.73cm (5’5”) | 13.1cm |
| 27 | Hungary | 176.59cm (5’9.5”) | 162.55cm (5’4”) | 14.0cm |
| 28 | Spain | 176.11cm (5’9.5”) | 162.03cm (5’4”) | 14.1cm |
| 29 | Italy | 174.42cm (5’8.5”) | 161.81cm (5’3.5”) | 12.6cm |
| 30 | Portugal | 174.37cm (5’8.5”) | 161.23cm (5’3.5”) | 13.1cm |
Russia and Turkey span two continents and are left out of the ranking. For reference, the dataset gives Russia 176.65cm for men and 164.52cm for women, and Turkey 176.36cm and 161.8cm.
What the ranking shows
The first thing is the narrowness of the range. The tallest and shortest countries on the list are 9.41cm apart for men and 9.13cm apart for women. By comparison, the full 69-country dataset runs from 166.26cm (Indonesia) to 183.78cm (the Netherlands) for men, a spread of more than 17cm.
The second is that height does not line up neatly with a north to south split. The Netherlands and Estonia lead, and the Nordic countries sit in the 180s. But Montenegro, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Latvia, Czechia, Slovakia and Ukraine also rank in the top twelve, while Hungary and Romania are in the bottom five alongside Spain, Italy and Portugal.
The UK, at 178.21cm for men and 163.94cm for women, is in the bottom third of the list. Our guide to average height in the UK by age and sex shows how that average builds through childhood.
| Name | Height |
|---|---|
| Netherlands man | 183.8 cm |
| UK man | 178.2 cm |
| Portugal man | 174.4 cm |
| Netherlands woman | 170.4 cm |
| Portugal woman | 161.2 cm |
How big is the gap between men and women?
Across these countries, the average man is 11.6cm to 15.7cm taller than the average woman. The smallest gap is in Austria (11.6cm) and the largest in Belgium (15.7cm). The typical gap is around 13 to 14cm.
Because the men’s and women’s rankings are not identical, the gap is a useful reminder that each sex responds to the same national conditions slightly differently in these estimates. Small differences between neighbouring countries, a centimetre or less, should not be over-read. NCD-RisC publishes its estimates with uncertainty ranges, and the figures here are the central values.
Why do European countries differ in height?
Height in a population reflects genetics and childhood conditions: nutrition, infection, and access to healthcare. Countries where children have been well fed and healthy for several generations tend to be tall. Countries where living standards rose later or more slowly tend to sit lower, even within Europe.
This page does not attribute any country’s position to a specific cause. For the best-studied case, see why Dutch people are so tall. For the whole-world view, see the tallest countries in the world and the shortest countries in the world, plus the lists of average height for men by country and for women by country.
How does your height compare?
Pick your height and a country in the average height by country tool to see where you rank, or open the comparison board to stand two national averages side by side. If you are unsure of your measurement, our guide to measuring your height at home explains how.
What the data does and does not cover
The dataset is a subset of NCD-RisC’s full country list. It includes 30 European countries and omits others, such as Albania, Bulgaria, North Macedonia and Slovenia, so the ranking is a ranking of these 30 and not a complete league table of Europe. Figures describe adults who turned 19 in 2019, which makes them a good guide to younger adults today and a weaker guide to older generations, who were on average shorter.
Method and sources
Country figures come from this site’s countries dataset, compiled from NCD-RisC’s 2019 cohort estimates (mean height at age 19). The NCD-RisC raw download could not be accessed when the dataset was built, so the file was cross-checked between two published compilations where they overlap, as described on the sources page. The European averages are simple unweighted means of the 30 country values (179.9cm for men, 166.2cm for women), and the comparison with the dataset-wide averages uses the 69-country means of 174.9cm and 161.9cm. Feet and inches are rounded to the nearest half inch in the table. Last reviewed 25 October 2026.
Rank your own height by country or open the comparison board.