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Average height of men by year of birth

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Human Height

this data

Average height of men by year of birth
Reconstruction of human heights by birth decade using a variety of different sources.
Source
Baten and Blum (2014) – with minor processing by
Last updated
December 31, 2024
Next expected update
December 2025
Date range
1550–2000
Unit
cm

Related research and writing

A dark blue background with a lighter blue world map superimposed over it. Yellow text that says Human Height by

Human Height

Max Roser, Cameron Appel, and Hannah Ritchie

Sources and processing

This data is based on the following sources

This variable contains anthropometric information which can be used as an indicator for human health and welfare in 165 countries spanning the period 1810-1989, and a smaller number of countries 1500-1800.

Retrieved on
December 31, 2024
Retrieved from
Citation
This is the citation of the original data obtained from the source, prior to any processing or adaptation by . To cite data downloaded from this page, please use the suggested citation given in Reuse This Work below.
“Why are you tall while others are short? Agricultural production and other proximate determinants of global heights”, Joerg Baten and Matthias Blum, European Review of Economic History, Volume 18, Issue 2, May 2014, Pages 144–165, 
More details:

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All data and visualizations on rely on data sourced from one or several original data providers. Preparing this original data involves several processing steps. Depending on the data, this can include standardizing country names and world region definitions, converting units, calculating derived indicators such as per capita measures, as well as adding or adapting metadata such as the name or the description given to an indicator.

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Reuse this work

  • All data produced by third-party providers and made available by are subject to the license terms from the original providers. Our work would not be possible without the data providers we rely on, so we ask you to always cite them appropriately (see below). This is crucial to allow data providers to continue doing their work, enhancing, maintaining and updating valuable data.
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Citations

How to cite this page

To cite this page overall, including any descriptions, FAQs or explanations of the data authored by , please use the following citation:

“Data Page: Average height of men by year of birth”, part of the following publication: Max Roser, Cameron Appel, and Hannah Ritchie (2021) - “Human Height”. Data adapted from Baten and Blum. Retrieved from /grapher/average-height-of-men-for-selected-countries [online resource]
How to cite this data

In-line citationIf you have limited space (e.g. in data visualizations), you can use this abbreviated in-line citation:

Baten and Blum (2014) – with minor processing by

Full citation

Baten and Blum (2014) – with minor processing by . “Average height of men by year of birth” [dataset]. Baten and Blum, “Height” [original data]. Retrieved April 28, 2025 from /grapher/average-height-of-men-for-selected-countries