Typical height in the UK rises from about 110cm (3’7”) at age 5 to roughly 176.5cm (5’9.5”) for boys and 163.2cm (5’4.5”) for girls by age 19, based on the WHO international growth reference. UK adult averages, from a separate dataset, are 178.2cm (5’10”) for men and 163.9cm (5’4.5”) for women.
Typical height by age and sex
| Age | Boys — typical height | Girls — typical height |
|---|---|---|
| 5 years | 110.3cm (3’7.5”) | 109.6cm (3’7”) |
| 10 years | 138.2cm (4’6.5”) | 139.2cm (4’7”) |
| 15 years | 169.4cm (5’6.5”) | 161.8cm (5’3.5”) |
| 19 years | 176.5cm (5’9.5”) | 163.2cm (5’4.5”) |
| Adult (20+) | 178.2cm (5’10”) | 163.9cm (5’4.5”) |
The four child and teen rows are the WHO reference’s median height at each age — the middle value for that age and sex in the reference population, labelled here as “typical” rather than “average” for that reason. The adult row is a separate figure, this site’s UK entry in its country average dataset.
Compared with the average male in United Kingdom
3.2 cm
shorter than the average of 178.2 cm.
United Kingdom ranks #27 of 69 countries in this dataset (42 have a lower average).
Top 10 tallest-average countries (male)
| Rank | Country | Average height |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Netherlands | 183.8 cm |
| 2 | Montenegro | 183.3 cm |
| 3 | Estonia | 182.8 cm |
| 4 | Bosnia and Herzegovina | 182.5 cm |
| 5 | Iceland | 182.1 cm |
| 6 | Denmark | 181.9 cm |
| 7 | Latvia | 181.2 cm |
| 8 | Czechia | 181.2 cm |
| 9 | Slovakia | 181 cm |
| 10 | Ukraine | 181 cm |
Method: why this page uses the WHO reference, not a UK-specific chart
There’s no UK-specific height-by-age dataset in this site’s data, so the child and teen figures above come from the WHO 2007 growth reference for ages 5-19 — the same table this site’s own percentile calculator defaults to for users outside the US. It’s an international reference built from a large multi-country sample, not a UK national survey, but it’s the standard, widely used benchmark for this age range and it’s what this site is consistent with elsewhere.
The WHO table is published at yearly resolution here (ages 5, 6, 7… 19), rather than the monthly detail WHO’s own full tables offer, so figures for ages between whole years use straight-line interpolation between the two nearest yearly points. The ages shown in the table above — 5, 10, 15 and 19 — all fall exactly on a yearly data point, so no interpolation was needed for this page.
Typical height at 5, 10, 15 and 19 — what’s actually going on
At age 5, boys and girls are close in height, with boys marginally taller on average in the WHO reference. Through the primary-school years the gap narrows further, and girls’ median height briefly overtakes boys’ — the table’s age-10 row shows this clearly, with girls at 139.2cm against boys at 138.2cm.
That’s because girls typically enter puberty, and the growth spurt that comes with it, before boys do. By age 15, boys have caught up and moved ahead, reflecting their own growth spurt starting later but often running for longer. By 19, close to the end of typical growth for both sexes, the WHO reference shows boys’ median (176.5cm) well ahead of girls’ (163.2cm) — a gap of about 13.3cm that closely matches the adult gap seen in country-level datasets.
Growth speed changes a lot between these ages
The size of the gap between rows in the table above tells its own story. Between ages 5 and 10, typical height rises by roughly 28-30cm over five years — a steady, fairly even climb for both sexes. Between 10 and 15, the rise is similar in scale but far less even, concentrated into the growth spurt that comes with puberty, which is why the boy/girl order flips during this window.
By age 19, growth has mostly levelled off: the rise from 15 to 19 is only around 1-7cm depending on sex, much smaller than the earlier five-year jumps. This tapering-off pattern, not a fixed “stops at X” age, is why this page treats 19 (and the separate adult figure) as the practical ceiling rather than naming a single stop-growing age for everyone.
This site’s percentile calculator can also use the CDC/NHANES US reference instead of WHO, as an alternative reference system for ages 2-20 plus adults — useful if you want to compare a height against the US population specifically rather than the international WHO one this page uses by default.
Check where a specific height and age falls
Rather than just reading typical figures off a table, you can check exactly where a given height sits for a given age and sex using the LMS method behind the WHO reference — the same maths this site’s percentile calculator runs.
Percentile
52nd
At 139 cm and age 10, you are taller than approximately 52% of the WHO reference population for your sex.
z-score 0.05
A 10-year-old girl at 139cm is close to the WHO median of 139.2cm for that age — this calculator will show the exact percentile that height works out to, rather than this page rounding it for you.
From “typical” at 19 to “average” as an adult
The jump from the age-19 row to the adult row in the table above isn’t a continuation of the same WHO curve — it’s a switch to a different dataset. The WHO reference stops at 19, by which point growth is essentially complete for most people, so this page uses this site’s separate country average dataset for the adult figure.
That adult UK figure — 178.2cm for men, 163.9cm for women — ultimately traces back to NCD-RisC’s 2019 cohort data (age 19), as compiled by two secondary sources rather than downloaded directly from NCD-RisC (see Method and sources below). It’s worth noting that NCD-RisC’s own age-19 cohort and the WHO age-19 median aren’t the same measurement exercise, so a small mismatch between the two at that boundary age is expected rather than an error.
Using this table sensibly
These are typical figures for a reference population, not a prediction or assessment for any individual child. Height at any given age varies for genuine, healthy reasons — family height, timing of puberty, and simple individual variation all matter, and none of them make a height “wrong”.
If you’re checking a child’s height against expectations for a specific reason — a health visitor appointment, a school health check — the UK’s own growth charts and a GP or health visitor’s clinical judgement are the right reference, not a general table like this one. This page is a general information resource, not a diagnostic tool.
It’s also worth noting what this page doesn’t cover: ages under 5, where a different WHO growth standard (not the 5-19y reference used here) applies, and the finer month-by-month detail that a full clinical growth chart provides. For a specific child at a specific month of age, especially under 5, a health visitor’s own chart is a more precise reference than this yearly-resolution table.
Method and sources
Child and teen figures (ages 5-19): WHO 2007 growth reference for 5-19 years, height-for-age indicator, using the M (median) value from each age’s LMS parameters. Table resolution here is yearly; ages between whole years use linear interpolation, matching this site’s percentile calculator.
Adult figure (20+): this site’s UK entry in its country average dataset — 178.21cm (male) and 163.94cm (female), rounded to one decimal place for display — ultimately sourced from NCD-RisC’s 2019 cohort (age 19), as compiled by World Population Review and heightcomparisoncalculator.com, since NCD-RisC’s own raw download wasn’t reachable when this dataset was built. Last reviewed 2026-09-19.
Try the height percentile calculator to check any height and age combination against the WHO or CDC reference, or try the average height by country tool to compare the UK adult average with any other country. You can also open the comparison board to see any of these figures stood side by side.
See also: average height for toddlers and young children, average height for teenagers and average height in Europe by country.