Sources
Every number on this site traces back to one of these. Primary datasets power the calculators directly; secondary sources support specific claims in individual guides, and are also cited inline at the bottom of the article that uses them.
Primary datasets
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WHO Growth reference data for 5-19 years — Height-for-age
International growth reference, ages 5-19. Used by the percentile calculator and growth articles.
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CDC/NCHS Anthropometric Reference Data, 2011-2014 (Fryar et al., 2016)
US (NHANES) stature-for-age reference, ages 2-20 plus an adult (20+) aggregate. Used by the percentile calculator and most averages articles.
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NCD Risk Factor Collaboration (NCD-RisC) — adult height by country
2019 cohort (mean height, age 19), as compiled by World Population Review and heightcomparisoncalculator.com. Powers the country-average calculator and this site's 69-country dataset.
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NCD-RisC — height data downloads
NCD-RisC's own raw dataset page; not directly downloadable from this build environment, which is why the compiled 69-country subset above was used instead. See Methodology for detail.
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World Population Review — average height by country
Secondary compilation of the NCD-RisC dataset, cross-checked against heightcomparisoncalculator.com where the two overlap.
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CDC/NCHS, NHANES Anthropometry Procedures Manual, 2020
Professional measurement protocol this site's own measurement guide is adapted from.
Growth, puberty and growth plates
Height prediction methods
Weight, BMI and body proportion
- WHO — Body mass index (BMI), adult categories 18.5 / 25 / 30
- NHS — Calculate your body mass index (adults 18+, and higher risk at lower BMI for some ethnic backgrounds)
- Bogin B, Varela-Silva MI. "Leg length, body proportion, and health: a review with a note on beauty." Int J Environ Res Public Health, 2010;7(3):1047-1075.
Map data
Measurement and diurnal variation
Country averages and national context
Couples and height preference research
Scale comparisons (animals, dinosaurs, records)
- Encyclopaedia Britannica — Blue whale
- Encyclopaedia Britannica — How Tall Are Giraffes?
- Encyclopaedia Britannica — How Tall Was T. rex?
- UK Parliament — Big Ben facts and figures
- Guinness World Records — Tallest man ever
- Guinness World Records — Sultan Kösen: tallest living man
- Guinness World Records — coverage of Zeng Jinlian
- TheHoopsGeek — The Average Height of NBA Players from 1952-2026
Child growth standards (ages 0-5)
Height loss with age
Dogs and dinosaurs
Animals and prehistoric mammals
- Hand (unit): horse measurement (Wikipedia)
- Shire horse (Wikipedia, citing the Shire Horse Society)
- African bush elephant (Wikipedia)
- Asian elephant (Wikipedia)
- Tiger (Wikipedia)
- Polar bear (Wikipedia)
- Kodiak bear (Wikipedia, citing Alaska Department of Fish and Game)
- Moose (Wikipedia)
- Woolly mammoth (Wikipedia)
- Paraceratherium (Wikipedia)
Landmarks
- Burj Khalifa (official site)
- Eiffel Tower (official site)
- CN Tower (official site)
- Empire State Building (official site)
- Statue of Liberty National Monument (US National Park Service)
- Washington Monument (US National Park Service)
- Willis Tower, height to architectural top and tip (CTBUH Skyscraper Center)
- Stonehenge, stone and lintel heights (Wikipedia)
Object reference sizes (street furniture and turbines)
- Red telephone box, K6 and K2 heights (Wikipedia)
- George VI Type B pillar box, 64 inches high (Letter Box Study Group)
- Pillar box (Wikipedia)
- Milton Keynes street lighting standard, column heights
- Vestas V162-6.2 MW onshore turbine: rotor and hub heights
- Carbon Brief on UK onshore wind turbine heights (citing RenewableUK)
Sports equipment dimensions
- IFAB Laws of the Game, Law 1: The Field of Play
- Laws of Sports: football dimensions (also basketball, tennis and cricket pitch)
- ITF Rules of Tennis 2026
- MCC Laws of Cricket, Law 8: The wickets
- Government of Western Australia: sports dimensions guide (volleyball, badminton, netball, hockey, rugby union)
Building standards (doors, ceilings, worktops)
- UK door industry guide: standard door sizes (GB Joinery)
- US standard door height guide (Wellstem)
- UK minimum ceiling height guidance (My Build Ally)
- US IRC residential ceiling height requirements (Building Code Trainer)
- UK standard worktop height guide (Work-Tops.com)
- US kitchen counter height guide (Parlun Building)
Silhouette artwork
The 400 board silhouettes are of two kinds. The 50 original landmark, object, vehicle and generic-person silhouettes are drawn in code for this site. The other 350 people, animal, dinosaur, plant, object, vehicle and landmark silhouettes are AI-assisted: we write the prompts, generate the images with OpenAI's image generation, review each one by eye, then trace it into a single-colour vector shape. None is copied from another site, and no real person's likeness is used. Each silhouette's source is recorded in this site's asset registry. Commercial-use terms for AI-generated images were checked against OpenAI's terms of use in October 2026 and will be rechecked if those terms change.
See Methodology for how these datasets are actually used in each calculation, or browse all guides to see a source cited in context.