Height Comparison Chart (Compare Heights to Scale)

About the Height Comparison Chart (Compare Heights to Scale)

Draw people and objects side by side on one scale, the way a growth chart on a wall compares a family. Add up to 12 figures, each with a name, a height in centimetres or feet and inches (chosen per figure), a silhouette — man, woman or child, or a rectangle, circle or triangle — and a colour. The chart has a centimetre scale on the left and a feet-and-inches scale on the right, and the sentence under it says exactly how much taller one figure is than another, in both units and in percent.

For context, add the average adult height of men or women in any of 200 countries, from the NCD Risk Factor Collaboration’s study of adult height, or objects whose heights are set by the rules of their sport: a basketball ring (3.05 m), a football crossbar (2.44 m) and the volleyball nets for men (2.43 m) and women (2.24 m). Everything is drawn in your browser; nothing is uploaded.

Common uses

• Seeing how tall you are next to a partner, a friend or your children before a photo or a trip.
• Showing a child how much they have grown since last year, on one scale.
• Comparing your height with the average adult of your country or another one.
• Checking how high a basketball ring or a football crossbar is next to a player, or planning a fancy-dress costume.
• Making a picture for a lesson about measurement, scale or height around the world.

Where the average heights come from

The country averages are the mean height at age 18 of men and of women in the most recent birth cohort covered by the NCD Risk Factor Collaboration’s pooled analysis of 1,472 population-based studies that measured more than 18.6 million people in 200 countries (A century of trends in adult human height, eLife, Creative Commons Attribution 4.0). Across the countries, the means run from 159.8 cm (Timor-Leste) to 182.5 cm (the Netherlands) for men, and from 149.4 cm (Guatemala) to 169.8 cm (Latvia) for women.

An average describes a whole population: many adults are much taller or shorter, and your own height says nothing about your country’s average.

Objects with official heights

• Basketball ring: 3.05 m. FIBA’s rules put the top edge of the ring 3,050 mm above the floor, the backboard at 1,800 × 1,050 mm with its bottom edge 150 mm below the top of the ring, and the ring at 450–459 mm across inside (FIBA Official Basketball Rules).
• Football goal: 2.44 m. The Laws of the Game measure from the ground to the lower edge of the crossbar, 2.44 m (8 ft); posts and bar are at most 12 cm wide (IFAB Law 1).
• Volleyball net: 2.43 m for men, 2.24 m for women, measured to the top of the net at the centre of the court; the net itself is 1 m wide from top to bottom, with a 7 cm white band along its top (FIVB Official Volleyball Rules).

Objects are drawn at their true height; their width is shortened so they fit beside people.

Reading the chart

• The left scale is in centimetres (or metres) and the right scale in feet and inches; the grid spacing adapts to the tallest figure.
• Each figure’s height is written above it and its name below the ground line. When figures are narrow, alternate labels are raised so they do not overlap.
• The two figures under Compare get dashed lines at their heights and a bracket with the difference at the right edge.
• Silhouettes are simple pictograms in proportion to their height (an adult figure is about a third as wide as it is tall), so a shorter figure is also drawn narrower.

Measuring your height at home

• Stand barefoot with your heels, bottom and shoulders against a wall, feet together and eyes looking straight ahead.
• Lay a hardback book flat on your head, against the wall, and mark where its lower edge meets the wall.
• Measure from the floor to the mark with a metal tape, and measure twice.
• Measure at about the same time of day each time: the spine settles a little over the day.

Limitations

• Silhouettes show height, not build, posture or hair.
• Heights from 1 cm to 4 m; up to 12 figures in one chart.
• The country averages describe one birth cohort measured at age 18; younger generations in many countries are taller, and an average is never one person’s height.
• Celebrity heights are not included: published figures for famous people often disagree. Type any height you trust instead.
• Objects are drawn at their true height but not their true width.

Privacy

Everything happens in your browser. What you enter or open here is not uploaded or stored by MySmartCoPilot.