8 Surprising Facts About Height You Didn’t Know

1. What’s the Average Height Around the World?
On average, men around the world are about 5.6 feet tall, and women are about 5.2 feet. The tallest people live in the Netherlands, where men average 6 feet and women 5.6 feet. In Israel, men average 5.77 feet, and women 5.28 feet. The tallest man in the world is from Turkey and stands at 8.27 feet, while the tallest woman is from China at 7.25 feet.

2. We Grow in Three Main Stages
First comes babyhood, this is when babies grow the fastest, sometimes nearly 10 inches before they start walking. Then comes steady growth during childhood. The biggest spurt happens in puberty, when kids can grow over 3 inches each year.

3. What Affects a Child’s Height?
Most of it comes from the parents, about 75% of how tall a child will be is based on genetics.

4. The Role of the Growth Hormone
Growth hormone tells the body when and how to grow. If someone doesn’t have enough of it, they may not grow as expected. But if there’s too much, they might grow faster and taller than usual.

5. We Start Getting Shorter After 40
After age 40, most people slowly lose a little height. This is because our bones and joints get weaker over time. On average, people shrink by about 0.39 inches every 10 years.

6. You’re Taller in the Morning
Yes, really! When we sleep, our spine stretches out. But as we go through the day and move around, our spinal discs compress. This means you could be almost half an inch taller in the morning than at night.

7. Boys and Girls Grow Differently
Until puberty, boys and girls grow at about the same rate. Then girls usually have their growth spurt earlier. Boys catch up later, usually after age 14, when girls have mostly finished growing.

8. Tall People May Earn More but Live Shorter
A U.S. study found that taller people often earn more at work. But on the flip side, other research shows that shorter people may live longer than taller ones.

Height is just one part of who we are but it’s full of interesting surprises!