Average height in Benin
Men in Benin average 167.1 cm (5 ft 6 in), women 156.2 cm (5 ft 1 in). That puts Benin 137th of 186 countries in our data.
Key numbers
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Benin among its neighbours
What counts as tall in Benin
Read it as: a man of 185 cm in Benin is taller than 99% of men. Values under 1% or over 99% are shown as <1 and >99.
In plain language
The standard deviation for men in Benin is 8.0 cm. In practice that means about two thirds of men stand between 159.1 and 175.1 cm, and roughly 95% between 151.1 and 183.1 cm. A man of 175 cm is taller than about 84% of men here; one of 183 cm is taller than about 98%.
Men in Benin are on average 10.9 cm taller than women. Compared with the global mean, men here are 3.9 cm shorter and women 2.8 cm shorter. These are means for people born in 1996, measured at 18. Older generations in most countries are shorter, by several centimetres where heights rose fast.
Questions
- Is 180 cm tall in Benin?
- A man of 180 cm (5 ft 11 in) is taller than about 95% of men in Benin. That is clearly tall here. For a woman, 180 cm is taller than >99% of women in Benin.
- What is the average height of women in Benin?
- Women in Benin average 156.2 cm (5 ft 1 in), with a standard deviation of 7.5 cm. About two thirds of women are between 148.7 and 163.7 cm. That ranks 142nd of 186 countries for women.
- How does Benin compare to Angola?
- Men in Angola average 167.3 cm, 0.2 cm more than men in Benin. Women average 157.3 cm against 156.2 cm. Angola ranks 136th, Benin 137th.
- How does Benin compare to the world average?
- The global mean is 171.0 cm for men and 159.0 cm for women. Men in Benin are 3.9 cm shorter than that, women 2.8 cm shorter.
NCD-RisC does not publish standard deviations. SD for countries added in 2026-10 uses the global SD. Benin is one of them, so the SD and the percentiles above use the global spread rather than one measured here.
Source: NCD Risk Factor Collaboration, eLife 2016, mean height at 18 of adults born in 1996. Percentiles on this page are our estimate from a normal distribution with the stated mean and SD.
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