Average height in Botswana
Men in Botswana average 171.6 cm (5 ft 8 in), women 161.4 cm (5 ft 4 in). That puts Botswana 86th of 186 countries in our data.
Key numbers
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Botswana among its neighbours
What counts as tall in Botswana
Read it as: a man of 185 cm in Botswana is taller than 95% of men. Values under 1% or over 99% are shown as <1 and >99.
In plain language
The standard deviation for men in Botswana is 8.0 cm. In practice that means about two thirds of men stand between 163.6 and 179.6 cm, and roughly 95% between 155.6 and 187.6 cm. A man of 180 cm is taller than about 84% of men here; one of 188 cm is taller than about 98%.
Men in Botswana are on average 10.2 cm taller than women. Compared with the global mean, men here are 0.6 cm taller and women 2.4 cm taller. 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 Botswana?
- A man of 180 cm (5 ft 11 in) is taller than about 85% of men in Botswana. That counts as tall here, though not rare. For a woman, 180 cm is taller than 99% of women in Botswana.
- What is the average height of women in Botswana?
- Women in Botswana average 161.4 cm (5 ft 4 in), with a standard deviation of 7.5 cm. About two thirds of women are between 153.9 and 168.9 cm. That ranks 62nd of 186 countries for women.
- How does Botswana compare to China?
- Men in China average 171.8 cm, 0.2 cm more than men in Botswana. Women average 159.7 cm against 161.4 cm. China ranks 85th, Botswana 86th.
- How does Botswana compare to the world average?
- The global mean is 171.0 cm for men and 159.0 cm for women. Men in Botswana are 0.6 cm taller than that, women 2.4 cm taller.
NCD-RisC does not publish standard deviations. SD for countries added in 2026-10 uses the global SD. Botswana 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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