Timor-Leste has the shortest average adult male height in this site’s 69-country dataset, at 159.8cm (5’2.9”). Guatemala has the shortest average female height, at 149.4cm (4’10.8”). This ranks the 69 countries in this dataset, not every country on Earth — see the caveat below.
Shortest countries by average male height
This table ranks the 10 shortest countries for average adult male height, out of the 69 countries in this site’s dataset.
| Rank (of 69) | Country | Average male height |
|---|---|---|
| 69 | Timor-Leste | 159.8cm (5’2.9”) |
| 68 | Laos | 162.0cm (5’3.8”) |
| 67 | Nepal | 163.0cm (5’4.2”) |
| 66 | Guatemala | 163.4cm (5’4.3”) |
| 65 | Bangladesh | 165.08cm (5’5.0”) |
| 64 | Philippines | 165.23cm (5’5.1”) |
| 63 | Sri Lanka | 166.0cm (5’5.4”) |
| 62 | Indonesia | 166.26cm (5’5.5”) |
| 61 | India | 166.5cm (5’5.6”) |
| 60 | Peru | 166.75cm (5’5.6”) |
Shortest countries by average female height
The same dataset, ranked for average adult female height instead. Sri Lanka and Laos are tied at 153.0cm.
| Rank (of 69) | Country | Average female height |
|---|---|---|
| 69 | Guatemala | 149.4cm (4’10.8”) |
| 68 | Nepal | 150.9cm (4’11.4”) |
| 67 | Timor-Leste | 152.3cm (5’0.0”) |
| 66 | Bangladesh | 152.38cm (5’0.0”) |
| 65 (tie) | Sri Lanka | 153.0cm (5’0.2”) |
| 65 (tie) | Laos | 153.0cm (5’0.2”) |
| 63 | Philippines | 154.14cm (5’0.7”) |
| 62 | Indonesia | 154.36cm (5’0.8”) |
| 61 | Peru | 154.39cm (5’0.8”) |
| 60 | Pakistan | 154.77cm (5’0.9”) |
Guatemala and Timor-Leste feature near the bottom for both sexes in this dataset, though the rest of each list is otherwise fairly distinct.
Compared with the average female in Guatemala
0 cm
taller than the average of 149.4 cm.
Guatemala ranks #69 of 69 countries in this dataset (0 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 |
| Name | Height |
|---|---|
| Guatemala average woman | 149.4 cm |
| UK average woman | 163.9 cm |
| US average woman | 163.3 cm |
How big is the gap from top to bottom?
Timor-Leste’s male average (159.8cm) sits 23.98cm below the Netherlands’ male average, the tallest in this same dataset. Guatemala’s female average (149.4cm) sits 20.96cm below the Netherlands’ female average.
That gap, roughly 20-24cm between the shortest and tallest national averages here, is meaningful but still smaller than the ordinary range of individual heights found within any one of these countries.
Why this isn’t a full global ranking
This dataset covers 69 countries, not the roughly 200 that NCD-RisC’s own full dataset spans. That means some genuinely short-average countries may simply be missing from this file, not correctly ranked below the ones shown here.
The 69-country subset also leans towards higher-income, disproportionately European countries, which tend to rank taller. So this list of “shortest” countries is really the shortest among a subset that already skews tall — the true global shortest-average countries, across all ~200, could include others not yet in this file.
Read this page as “the shortest countries within this site’s current dataset”, not a definitive global bottom-10. Coverage is expected to expand over time.
Why do average heights differ between countries?
This needs care, so here is the general, factual explanation and nothing more. Average population height mainly reflects two things, accumulated across generations: genetics, and the childhood nutrition and health environment a population grew up in.
On the nutrition side, that means adequate protein and key micronutrients through childhood and adolescence, when the body does most of its growing. On the health side, it means low rates of childhood illness and infection, and reliable access to healthcare that treats those illnesses before they interfere with growth.
Countries lower in this list have, on average, seen more variation in one or both of those factors, historically or currently, than countries at the top. This is a population-level pattern, not a statement about any individual, and it says nothing about a country’s people beyond that one measured trait.
It’s worth stressing what this explanation does not say. A shorter national average is not a judgement, a ranking of worth, or a claim that a country’s people are unhealthy today — a population’s current adult average largely reflects the conditions its adults experienced as children, sometimes decades ago.
Genetics and environment interact rather than operating independently. Even where a population’s genetic range for height is broad, childhood nutrition or healthcare shortfalls can still hold the measured average below what that range would otherwise allow.
It’s also worth noting that average height can rise within a generation or two once nutrition and healthcare access improve, a well-documented pattern called the secular trend. A country’s position in this list today doesn’t fix its position permanently.
How the ranking works
Countries are sorted by their published mean height in this dataset, shortest to tallest, separately for men and women. Rank 69 is the shortest average in the dataset among the countries covered.
This ranks national averages, not individuals. A tall person from a shorter-average country can easily be taller than a short person from a taller-average one — that’s simply how averages and individual variation work together.
Reading this list without stereotyping
It’s worth pausing on why this article treats the topic carefully. A ranking of “shortest countries” can easily slide into casual stereotyping if the underlying explanation isn’t kept factual and general.
Every claim on this page traces back to the standard genetics-and-environment explanation used across this site’s other averages articles, and nothing here goes further than that. No country-specific cultural or social claims are made, because none can be sourced from this site’s data.
Using this data sensibly
A national average hides real variation — by region, by generation, and between individuals within the same country. Average height also changes over time as nutrition and healthcare access shift, a pattern often called the secular trend in height.
A 2019-cohort figure reflects adults who grew up years or decades earlier, not necessarily the height trajectory of children being born in that country today. If you want to compare your own height against Guatemala’s average, or any other country here, the calculator above does so directly.
Method and sources
Source: NCD-RisC’s 2019 cohort data (mean height, age 19), as compiled by World Population Review and heightcomparisoncalculator.com — this site’s dataset (src/data/countries.json) notes that NCD-RisC’s raw download wasn’t directly reachable when this file was built, so these figures are cross-checked secondary compilations, not a first-party download.
Coverage: 69 countries, a partial subset of NCD-RisC’s roughly 200-country dataset. Rankings above were calculated by sorting all 69 countries’ figures shortest to tallest, separately for each sex. Last reviewed 2026-09-19.
Try the average height by country tool to rank your own height against Guatemala or any other country in this dataset, or open the comparison board to see two national averages stood side by side. See also the companion article on the tallest countries in the world.
See also: average height in Europe by country.