Are People in Colder Countries Taller?

[Deleted member 1973]

I got married in Amsterdam. One thing I remember most about my time in The Netherlands is the obvious height of the locals. Both men and women, generally, are quite tall.

A new study supports my anecdotal observation. Dutchmen are the tallest people in the world (women there are second), followed closely by some of their European neighbors. People in Southeast Asian and African countries are, on the other hand, shorter.

I’ve always wondered why the Dutch are so tall. Is it their dairy-rich diet, perhaps? Or could there be a correlation between the lower average temperatures in Northern Europe and its apparent height advantage? Are people taller in colder countries?

The answer is … sort of.

If you examine the relationship between a country’s average male height and its average annual temperature, there is a modest inverse correlation. Or, about half of the taller populations can be explained by colder temperatures. Other factors certainly apply. (Aside from the statistics, this is a fun but crude exercise. More on that in a moment).

This chart below shows countries’ average height (vertical axis) and average temperature (horizontal axis), and how they relate — with colored dots indicating each nation’s region as defined by the World Health Organization:

Are People in Colder Countries Taller?

I got married in Amsterdam. One thing I remember most about my time in The Netherlands is the obvious height of the locals. Both men and women, generally, are quite tall. A new study supports my an…

thedailyviz.com

Heat vs. Height
A country’s average annual temperature is partially related to the average height of its male residents.

• Africa
• Americas
• Eastern Mediterranean
• Europe
• South-East Asia
• Western Pacific

Again, there’s not a strong statistical correlation. But the chart is still interesting. Men in many European countries are taller than the world average — and they live in climates that are somewhat colder on average. People in some Middle Eastern countries — Syria, Jordan, Lebanon, and Iraq — are clustered around the average of both measures. (Men in Israel, interestingly, are taller). And it’s clear that in some parts of Asia and Africa that have hotter climates, the men are shorter.

Explore the data (there’s a table at the bottom of this post) for yourself. Below is another version of the chart, but with colored dots indicating each country’s income, according to the WHO’s wealth categories:

Are People in Colder Countries Taller?

I got married in Amsterdam. One thing I remember most about my time in The Netherlands is the obvious height of the locals. Both men and women, generally, are quite tall. A new study supports my an…

thedailyviz.com

Heat vs. Height
A country’s average annual temperature is partially related to the average height of its male residents.

• Low income
• Lower middle income
• Upper middle income
• High income

In this case, wealthy countries do seem more likely to be higher on the average height axis, perhaps because of Europe — an observation that deserves more examination. I’ll save that for another day.

As I mentioned, this is a crude way to ask such a question, which researchers have tackled before in more depth. Take Allen’s Rule, for example, which gets at the question more broadly. It found that “endothermic animals with the same body volume should have different surface areas that will either aid or impede their heat dissipation.”

Here are some of the obvious problems with this analysis. First, using the average temperature of places like the United States or China (or any geographic unit that covers huge and climatically diverse swaths of the globe) isn’t ideal. But that’s the data I had readily available. And if one assumes such a correlation between height and heat is linked to human evolution in particular climates, using the current nation-state boundaries doesn’t account for the mass migration of recent human history. I’m looking at you, America and Australia, among others. Also, what about diet, health, wealth, etc.? I could go on…

Think of this post as more of a data exercise, not science. In the end, I just wanted to make a scatterplot using NPR’s lovely daily graphics rig — and I was a little geeked about the new height data set. And I love the Dutch.

Any thoughts?

As I mentioned, here’s all the data in a table (note that a few countries were excluded because they weren’t listed in one of the heights, climate and/or region/income data sets):


Heat vs. Height
Compare countries’ average male height and average annual temperature. Sort the table by country name, income category or region.

COUNTRY	MALE HEIGHT (CM)	TEMPERATURE (C)	POPULATION	REGION	WEALTH
Afghanistan	165.26	12.92	28,400,000	Eastern Mediterranean	Low-income
Albania	173.39	11.27	3,639,453	Europe	Upper-middle-income
Algeria	170.07	22.58	34,178,188	Africa	Upper-middle-income
Angola	167.31	21.51	12,799,293	Africa	Upper-middle-income
Argentina	174.62	14.22	40,913,584	Americas	High-income
Armenia	172.0	6.37	2,967,004	Europe	Lower-middle-income
Australia	179.2	21.51	21,262,641	Western Pacific	High-income
Austria	177.41	6.19	8,210,281	Europe	High-income
Azerbaijan	169.75	12.22	8,238,672	Europe	Upper-middle-income
Bahamas	172.75	25.06	309,156	Americas	High-income
Bangladesh	163.81	25.47	156,050,883	South-East Asia	Lower-middle-income
Belarus	178.44	6.29	9,648,533	Europe	Upper-middle-income
Belgium	181.7	9.51	10,414,336	Europe	High-income
Belize	168.73	25.06	307,899	Americas	Upper-middle-income
Benin	167.06	27.46	8,791,832	Africa	Low-income
Bhutan	165.31	8.58	691,141	South-East Asia	Lower-middle-income
Bolivia	166.85	20.98	9,775,246	Americas	Lower-middle-income
Bosnia and Herzegovina	180.87	9.02	4,613,414	Europe	Upper-middle-income
Botswana	171.63	21.48	1,990,876	Africa	Upper-middle-income
Brazil	173.55	24.92	198,739,269	Americas	Upper-middle-income
Brunei Darussalam	165.01	25.93	388,190	Western Pacific	High-income
Bulgaria	178.24	10.4	7,204,687	Europe	Upper-middle-income
Burkina Faso	169.33	28.18	15,746,232	Africa	Low-income
Burundi	166.64	20.27	8,988,091	Africa	Low-income
Cambodia	163.33	26.94	14,494,293	Western Pacific	Low-income
Cameroon	167.82	24.53	18,879,301	Africa	Lower-middle-income
Canada	178.09	-7.14	33,487,208	Americas	High-income
Central African Republic	166.67	24.84	4,511,488	Africa	Low-income
Chad	170.44	26.65	10,329,208	Africa	Low-income
Chile	171.81	8.37	16,601,707	Americas	High-income
China	171.83	6.33	1,338,612,970	Western Pacific	Upper-middle-income
Colombia	169.5	24.4	45,644,023	Americas	Upper-middle-income
Comoros	166.19	23.99	734,917	Africa	Low-income
Costa Rica	168.93	23.85	4,253,877	Americas	Upper-middle-income
Cote d Ivoire	166.53	26.3	20,617,068	Africa	Lower-middle-income
Croatia	180.78	10.47	4,489,409	Europe	High-income
Cuba	172.0	25.13	11,451,652	Americas	Upper-middle-income
Cyprus	174.99	18.71	531,640	Europe	High-income
Czech Republic	180.1	7.67	10,211,904	Europe	High-income
Democratic Republic of Congo	166.8	24.04	68,692,542	Africa	Low-income
Denmark	181.39	7.82	5,500,510	Europe	High-income
Djibouti	166.57	27.64	516,055	Eastern Mediterranean	Lower-middle-income
Dominican Republic	172.75	23.93	9,650,054	Americas	Upper-middle-income
Ecuador	167.08	21.33	14,573,101	Americas	Upper-middle-income
Egypt	166.68	22.12	83,082,869	Eastern Mediterranean	Lower-middle-income
El Salvador	169.77	24.77	7,185,218	Americas	Lower-middle-income
Equatorial Guinea	167.36	24.13	650,702	Africa	High-income
Eritrea	168.36	26.07	5,647,168	Africa	Low-income
Estonia	181.59	5.03	1,299,371	Europe	High-income
Ethiopia	166.23	22.37	85,237,338	Africa	Low-income
Fiji	173.9	23.37	944,720	Western Pacific	Upper-middle-income
Finland	179.59	1.35	5,250,275	Europe	High-income
France	179.74	10.54	64,057,792	Europe	High-income
Gabon	167.94	25.0	1,514,993	Africa	Upper-middle-income
Gambia	165.4	26.77	1,782,893	Africa	Low-income
Georgia	174.34	7.36	4,615,807	Europe	Lower-middle-income
Germany	179.88	8.5	82,329,758	Europe	High-income
Ghana	168.85	27.25	23,832,495	Africa	Lower-middle-income
Greece	177.32	13.66	10,737,428	Europe	High-income
Guatemala	163.41	23.07	13,276,517	Americas	Lower-middle-income
Guinea	167.54	25.55	10,057,975	Africa	Low-income
Guinea Bissau	167.9	26.61	1,533,964	Africa	Low-income
Guyana	170.21	25.8	772,298	Americas	Lower-middle-income
Haiti	172.64	24.48	9,035,536	Americas	Low-income
Honduras	166.39	23.39	7,792,854	Americas	Lower-middle-income
Hungary	177.26	10.06	9,905,596	Europe	High-income
Iceland	180.49	1.35	306,694	Europe	High-income
India	164.95	23.95	1,166,079,220	South-East Asia	Lower-middle-income
Indonesia	163.55	25.72	240,271,522	South-East Asia	Lower-middle-income
Iran	173.57	16.93	66,429,284	Eastern Mediterranean	Upper-middle-income
Iraq	170.43	21.58	31,129,225	Eastern Mediterranean	Upper-middle-income
Ireland	178.93	9.11	4,203,200	Europe	High-income
Israel	176.86	19.7	7,233,701	Europe	High-income
Italy	177.77	11.5	58,126,212	Europe	High-income
Jamaica	174.53	24.47	2,825,928	Americas	Upper-middle-income
Japan	170.82	10.36	127,078,679	Western Pacific	High-income
Jordan	171.03	18.35	6,342,948	Eastern Mediterranean	Upper-middle-income
Kazakhstan	171.14	5.99	15,399,437	Europe	Upper-middle-income
Kenya	169.64	24.5	39,002,772	Africa	Lower-middle-income
Kuwait	172.07	25.15	2,691,158	Eastern Mediterranean	High-income
Kyrgyzstan	171.24	1.09	5,431,747	Europe	Lower-middle-income
Laos	160.52	23.22	6,834,942	Western Pacific	Lower-middle-income
Latvia	181.42	5.63	2,231,503	Europe	High-income
Lebanon	174.39	15.61	4,017,095	Eastern Mediterranean	Upper-middle-income
Lesotho	165.59	11.97	2,130,819	Africa	Lower-middle-income
Liberia	163.66	25.25	3,441,790	Africa	Low-income
Libya	173.53	21.9	6,310,434	Eastern Mediterranean	Upper-middle-income
Lithuania	179.03	6.24	3,555,179	Europe	High-income
Luxembourg	177.86	8.88	491,775	Europe	High-income
Macedonia	178.33	9.85	2,066,718	Europe	Upper-middle-income
Madagascar	161.55	22.01	20,653,556	Africa	Low-income
Malawi	162.23	21.98	14,268,711	Africa	Low-income
Malaysia	167.88	25.14	25,715,819	Western Pacific	Upper-middle-income
Mali	171.12	28.3	12,666,987	Africa	Low-income
Mauritania	163.28	27.69	3,129,486	Africa	Lower-middle-income
Mauritius	170.5	23.13	1,296,000	Africa	Upper-middle-income
Mexico	169.01	20.54	111,211,789	Americas	Upper-middle-income
Moldova	175.49	9.67	4,320,748	Europe	Lower-middle-income
Mongolia	169.07	-0.5	3,041,142	Western Pacific	Upper-middle-income
Morocco	170.4	17.23	34,859,364	Eastern Mediterranean	Lower-middle-income
Mozambique	164.8	23.69	21,669,278	Africa	Low-income
Myanmar	164.67	22.96	48,137,741	South-East Asia	Lower-middle-income
Namibia	166.96	20.04	2,108,665	Africa	Upper-middle-income
Nepal	162.32	12.74	28,563,377	South-East Asia	Low-income
Netherlands	182.54	9.2	16,715,999	Europe	High-income
New Zealand	177.74	9.98	4,213,418	Western Pacific	High-income
Nicaragua	166.71	24.59	5,891,199	Americas	Lower-middle-income
Niger	167.68	27.24	15,306,252	Africa	Low-income
Nigeria	165.91	26.78	149,229,090	Africa	Lower-middle-income
North Korea	171.99	4.86	22,665,345	Western Pacific	Low-income
Norway	179.75	0.75	4,676,305	Europe	High-income
Oman	169.16	25.45	3,418,085	Eastern Mediterranean	High-income
Pakistan	166.95	19.98	176,242,949	Eastern Mediterranean	Lower-middle-income
Panama	168.49	24.72	3,360,474	Americas	Upper-middle-income
Papua New Guinea	163.57	25.05	6,057,263	Western Pacific	Lower-middle-income
Paraguay	172.83	23.48	6,995,655	Americas	Upper-middle-income
Peru	165.23	19.46	29,546,963	Americas	Upper-middle-income
Philippines	163.23	25.33	97,976,603	Western Pacific	Lower-middle-income
Poland	177.33	7.87	38,482,919	Europe	High-income
Portugal	172.93	14.97	10,707,924	Europe	High-income
Puerto Rico	172.08	24.28	3,971,020	Americas	High-income
Qatar	170.48	26.92	833,285	Eastern Mediterranean	High-income
Republic of Congo	167.45	24.52	4,012,809	Africa	Lower-middle-income
Romania	174.74	8.81	22,215,421	Europe	Upper-middle-income
Russian Federation	176.46	-6.32	140,041,247	Europe	High-income
Rwanda	162.68	19.01	10,473,282	Africa	Low-income
Saint Vincent and the Grenadines	172.78	26.82	109,000	Americas	Upper-middle-income
Saudi Arabia	167.67	24.65	28,686,633	Eastern Mediterranean	High-income
Senegal	173.14	27.87	13,711,597	Africa	Lower-middle-income
Serbia	180.57	10.18	7,379,339	Europe	Upper-middle-income
Sierra Leone	164.41	26.04	6,440,053	Africa	Low-income
Slovakia	179.5	7.27	5,410,000	Europe	High-income
Slovenia	179.8	8.04	2,005,692	Europe	High-income
Solomon Islands	164.14	25.68	595,613	Western Pacific	Lower-middle-income
Somalia	166.6	26.77	9,832,017	Eastern Mediterranean	Low-income
South Africa	166.68	17.6	49,052,489	Africa	Upper-middle-income
South Korea	174.92	10.66	48,508,972	Western Pacific	High-income
Spain	176.59	13.03	40,525,002	Europe	High-income
Sri Lanka	165.69	26.76	21,324,791	South-East Asia	Lower-middle-income
Sudan	166.63	26.82	25,946,220	Eastern Mediterranean	Lower-middle-income
Suriname	172.72	25.77	481,267	Americas	Upper-middle-income
Swaziland	168.13	20.41	1,123,913	Africa	Lower-middle-income
Sweden	179.74	1.55	9,059,651	Europe	High-income
Switzerland	178.42	4.75	7,604,467	Europe	High-income
Syrian Arab Republic	170.43	17.65	20,178,485	Eastern Mediterranean	Lower-middle-income
Tajikistan	171.26	3.03	7,349,145	Europe	Lower-middle-income
Tanzania	164.8	22.31	41,048,532	Africa	Low-income
Thailand	169.16	26.25	65,905,410	South-East Asia	Upper-middle-income
Timor-Leste	159.79	24.97	1,131,612	South-East Asia	Lower-middle-income
Togo	168.33	26.8	6,019,877	Africa	Low-income
Trinidad and Tobago	173.74	25.86	1,310,000	Americas	High-income
Tunisia	173.95	19.36	10,486,339	Eastern Mediterranean	Upper-middle-income
Turkey	174.21	10.93	76,805,524	Europe	Upper-middle-income
Turkmenistan	171.97	15.22	4,884,887	Europe	Upper-middle-income
Uganda	165.62	22.6	32,369,558	Africa	Low-income
Ukraine	178.46	8.21	45,700,395	Europe	Lower-middle-income
United Arab Emirates	170.46	26.83	4,798,491	Eastern Mediterranean	High-income
United Kingdom	177.49	8.31	62,262,000	Europe	High-income
Uruguay	173.43	17.57	3,494,382	Americas	High-income
USA	177.13	6.75	313,973,000	Americas	High-income
Uzbekistan	169.38	12.52	27,606,007	Europe	Lower-middle-income
Vanuatu	168.09	23.84	218,519	Western Pacific	Lower-middle-income
Venezuela	171.59	25.32	26,814,843	Americas	High-income
Vietnam	164.45	24.07	86,967,524	Western Pacific	Lower-middle-income
Yemen	159.89	23.16	23,822,783	Eastern Mediterranean	Lower-middle-income
Zambia	166.52	21.58	11,862,740	Africa	Lower-middle-income
Zimbabwe	168.59	21.03	12,619,600	Africa	Low-income

Notes

 

[Void]

The rest of humanity has to come together and glass the Netherlands. We can't go on with this mogging.

 

[Deleted member 1973]

The rest of humanity has to come together and glass the Netherlands.

@Gudru

 

[tylerhunter97]

Yeah that's why its snowing in the site now, admins tryna make us grow taller

 

[Deleted member 4209]

longer nights = more sleep = more hgh

that is my extremely grug take on this issue.

 

[Deleted member 2933]

dn

 

[Dicklet.4.3]

also puberty are slower in cold enviroment. dk if that helps

 

[Raax]

Legit people from colder areas(europe) are generally more taller on average

in pakistan & india
people from hot areas aka Punjab are generally shitskin low height
whereas people from colder climates are taller on average

i noticed the same phenomenon in China
han chinese are short(but not really short anymore due to better nutrition and quality of life) but the Hui chinese(due to cold climates) are really tall and robust

 

[athnico]

Australia is 179cm average and it's hot as fuck here. Don't say anything about ethnicities either because the number of Asians above 6' I saw today was probably 20 and I was only out for an hour. Also, why isn't Russia incredibly tall? Why aren't people in Siberia like absolute giants? The average temperature in Japan is almost equal to the Netherlands but there is a 12cm difference. I don't think people in colder countries are taller, just genetics and protein.

 

[GoMadAndSTFU]

Usa 177 . Lifuel , in France its like 182cm among the youths.

 

[prgfromnl]

you mirin brah

 

[athnico]

I have 2 friends at 193cm at 15 years old. Youths are so tall, this is in Oceania by the way.

 

[SMVbender]

protein consumption is more reasonable. How tf cold can be the reason for tallness directly anyway?

 

[Deleted member 2227]

South Sudan is full of 6'7 people

 

[Pietrosiek]

Read i, did not

 

[PrettyTritty]

These charts are fascinating, I am a 188cm Canadian but I think it still comes down to genetics.