5’5” (165.1cm) is a little above average for an adult woman. Against the CDC/NHANES US reference, it sits at roughly the 67th percentile — taller than about 67% of adult women, shorter than the rest. It’s a modest gap above average, not an unusual height in either direction.
How 5’5” compares
| Measure | Height | Difference from 5’5” |
|---|---|---|
| 5’5” (this article) | 165.1cm | — |
| US adult female average | 163.3cm | -1.8cm shorter |
| UK adult female average | 163.94cm | -1.2cm shorter |
| 69-country dataset average | 161.9cm | -3.2cm shorter |
| US percentile (CDC/NHANES) | 67th | 33% of US women are taller |
The 69-country figure is a simple, unweighted average across the 69 countries in this site’s dataset — a useful rough benchmark, but not a population-weighted “world average”, since the subset leans European.
| Name | Height |
|---|---|
| 5'5" woman | 165.1 cm |
| US average woman | 163.3 cm |
| UK average woman | 163.9 cm |
Try the calculator below with your own age and reference population, pre-filled to this exact case.
This reference covers ages 2-20; using the nearest available data point for age 30.
Percentile
67th
At 165.1 cm and age 30, you are taller than approximately 67% of the CDC reference population for your sex.
z-score 0.45
What “67th percentile” actually means
A percentile is a ranking, not a value judgement. Landing at the 67th percentile for height means that, in a reference population of adult women matched by sex, roughly 67 in every 100 are the same height or shorter than 165.1cm. The remaining 33 are taller.
This describes one comparison, not a fixed label. Percentile rankings depend on age, ethnicity mix and which country’s data is used as the reference, so “67th percentile” specifically describes a comparison against the CDC/NHANES adult sample — it would read differently against another country’s average.
It’s also distinct from “average.” Average height is a single figure (163.3cm in the US); percentile tells you where a specific height sits relative to the full spread of the population around that figure, not just the midpoint.
Why the answer depends on which country you pick
Adult height varies between populations, shaped by both genetics and childhood factors such as nutrition and healthcare. So “is 5’5” tall” doesn’t have one fixed answer — it depends on which population you’re comparing against.
Against the US average (163.3cm), 5’5” is about 1.8cm above. Against the UK average (163.94cm), the margin narrows slightly to 1.2cm. Against the simple 69-country dataset average (161.9cm) used on this site, the margin widens to 3.2cm. None of these comparisons is more “correct” than the others; they simply use different reference groups.
This is also why the percentile calculator below lets you switch between the WHO and CDC references. If you want to compare against a specific national population, use the reference and country figures that match it rather than a single global rule of thumb.
Is 5’5” unusual for a woman?
No. A 67th-percentile height is common — roughly a third of the CDC/NHANES adult female sample is this height or taller. Adult female height in most populations clusters in a fairly narrow band, roughly 5’2” to 5’7” for the bulk of the distribution, with the tails extending further in both directions.
Being above average by a couple of centimetres doesn’t place someone in an unusual bracket; it places them comfortably within the upper-middle of an ordinary, continuous range. Nothing in the data here marks 5’5” as tall in any exceptional statistical sense — it’s simply a little above average.
Height distributions follow a roughly bell-shaped curve, with most people clustered near the median and progressively fewer towards each tail. That shape is also why moving a few centimetres near the average shifts percentile more sharply than moving the same distance out towards the extremes, where the curve flattens.
What shapes adult height
Adult height comes from a mix of genetic inheritance and childhood environment. Genetics sets a range of potential heights; factors such as nutrition, general health and healthcare access during childhood and adolescence influence where within that range someone ends up.
This is part of why average height differs between countries and has shifted over generations within the same country, as living standards, diet and healthcare have changed. None of this makes any individual height, including 5’5”, a reflection of anything other than a mix of inherited and environmental factors that are largely outside a person’s control.
Measuring your height accurately
If you’re checking your own height against these figures, small measurement errors can shift the result. Stand fully upright without shoes, heels and shoulder blades against a flat wall, and use a rigid flat object (not a tape measure alone) to mark the top of your head against a wall-mounted ruler or tape.
Height also varies slightly across the day, typically reading a touch taller in the morning than in the evening, because the spine compresses gradually while standing or sitting. For the most consistent comparison against reference data like the figures above, measure at roughly the same time of day each time.
WHO or CDC: which reference should you use?
This site’s percentile calculator offers two reference systems. WHO 2007 is built to serve as an international reference, covering ages 5-19. CDC/NHANES is built from a US population sample and includes an adult (20+) point, which is what this article uses throughout.
Neither reference is objectively “correct” — they’re built from different underlying populations for different purposes. If you’re comparing yourself specifically to other adults in the US, CDC is the closer match; for a broader international comparison, WHO is the more common international field standard, even though its adult coverage is more limited than CDC’s.
A ranking, not a judgement
None of the figures on this page say anything about health, ability or anything else beyond where a specific height sits in a measured population. Percentile is a purely descriptive statistic, and this site treats every height, in every percentile band, as equally unremarkable — because statistically, that’s exactly what they are.
How this figure was calculated
The percentile for 5’5” (165.1cm) was calculated using the LMS method against the CDC/NHANES adult (20+) reference point for women: M (median) = 161.9cm, S (coefficient of variation) = 0.043944, L = 1. The z-score works out to z ≈ 0.450, which converts to the 67.4th percentile via the standard normal distribution.
The CDC/NHANES adult figure is a single aggregate for everyone aged 20 and over, not broken out by decade — see the percentile tool’s own “Method and sources” section for the full data-provenance notes, including why this uses the 2011-2014 NHANES table rather than the original 2000 CDC growth chart constants.
Country averages (US, UK, and the 69-country dataset) come from this site’s country dataset, itself compiled from NCD-RisC’s 2019 cohort figures (age 19). See the country average tool for the full list and its own sourcing notes.
Because the CDC/NHANES adult S value here is estimated from published percentile columns rather than an official LMS fit, treat the 67th-percentile figure as a close approximation rather than an exact match to any single authoritative table. The underlying position — a little above average, comfortably within the ordinary range — holds regardless of the small margin of approximation involved.
Try the full percentile calculator to check your own height and age against the WHO or CDC reference, or open the comparison board to see 5’5” stood next to any other height, person or object you choose.
See also: is 5’2” short for a woman?