The average height for an adult woman in the United States is 5 feet 3.5 inches (63.5 inches), based on CDC measurements collected through August 2023. Globally, averages range from about 4 feet 11 inches in Guatemala to 5 feet 7 inches in the Netherlands, a spread of roughly 8 inches depending on where you live.
Average Female Height in the U.S.
The CDC’s most recent data puts American women aged 20 and older at 63.5 inches, or just under 5 foot 4. That number comes from actual physical measurements, not self-reported heights (which tend to run a bit generous).
Height varies across demographic groups. Non-Hispanic Black women in the U.S. average about 5 feet 4 inches, while non-Hispanic White women come in slightly over 5 feet 3 inches. Hispanic women average 5 feet 2 inches, and non-Hispanic Asian women average 5 feet 1 inch. These differences reflect a mix of genetic background, nutrition during childhood, and other environmental factors rather than any single cause.
How Averages Compare Around the World
Where you were born and raised has a significant effect on how tall you’re likely to be. Women in Northern and Western Europe, along with Australia and New Zealand, tend to be the tallest at around 5 feet 5 inches on average. Eastern European countries like Latvia, the Netherlands, Estonia, and the Czech Republic produce the tallest women globally, with averages surpassing 5 feet 6 inches.
At the other end of the spectrum, women in Central America, South Asia, and Southeast Asia average closer to 5 feet 1 inch. Here’s how the major regions break down:
- North America: 5 feet 4 inches
- South America: 5 feet 3 inches
- Central America: 5 feet 1 inch
- East Asia: 5 feet 4 inches
- South Asia: 5 feet 1 inch
- Southeast Asia: 5 feet 1 inch
- Western Europe: 5 feet 5 inches
- Eastern Europe: 5 feet 5 inches
- Northern Africa: 5 feet 3 inches
- Eastern Africa: 5 feet 2 inches
- Australia and New Zealand: 5 feet 5 inches
The gap between the tallest and shortest female populations in the world is about 20 centimeters, or roughly 8 inches. That gap has stayed remarkably consistent for over a century, even as the specific countries at the top and bottom of the list have shifted.
What Determines Your Height
About 80 percent of your height is determined by genetics. Not one or two genes, but a large combination of genetic variants that each contribute a small amount. The remaining 20 percent comes from environmental factors, with childhood nutrition being the most influential.
This is why entire populations have gotten taller over the past century as food security and healthcare improved. South Korean women saw the most dramatic gain of any group: women born in the mid-1990s are roughly 8 inches taller on average than those born a century earlier. Meanwhile, in parts of sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia where malnutrition remained more common, average heights changed very little over the same period. Women born in 1996 in Guatemala, the Philippines, Bangladesh, and Nepal still average under 5 feet.
Nutrition matters most during two windows: the first 1,000 days of life (from conception through age two) and puberty. Getting adequate protein, calcium, and micronutrients during these periods gives your body the best shot at reaching its genetic potential. Once your growth plates close, typically by age 16 to 18 for women, your adult height is set.
Why Your Height Changes During the Day
If you’ve ever measured yourself in the morning and gotten a different number at night, you weren’t imagining things. People lose an average of about 15.7 millimeters of height over the course of a day, roughly half an inch. This happens because the discs between your vertebrae compress under gravity as you stand and walk. You recover that height overnight while lying down.
For the most accurate measurement, the clinical standard uses a stadiometer (the sliding arm device at your doctor’s office) with you standing barefoot, heels together, and looking straight ahead. Morning measurements will read slightly taller than evening ones, so consistency in timing matters if you’re tracking changes over time.
Height and Long-Term Health
Height is linked to health outcomes in some surprising ways. Taller women face a slightly higher risk of certain cancers. Studies involving millions of people have found that shorter, smaller individuals tend to have lower cancer mortality and fewer diet-related chronic diseases, particularly after middle age. Some research suggests shorter people have longer average lifespans overall.
The picture isn’t entirely in favor of being short, though. Cardiovascular disease, including heart attacks and strokes, shows up more frequently in shorter people. This likely has less to do with height itself and more with the fact that smaller coronary blood vessels are more prone to blockages, particularly in combination with a Western diet high in processed food and saturated fat. Taller people also tend to report fewer heart attacks and strokes in many studies, which complicates the overall picture.
None of these associations are strong enough to predict what will happen to any individual person. Height is one of many factors that influence health, and lifestyle choices like diet, exercise, and sleep carry far more weight than whether you stand a few inches above or below the average.