Average height in Ethiopia
Men in Ethiopia average 166.2 cm (5 ft 5 in), women 155.7 cm (5 ft 1 in). That puts Ethiopia 154th of 186 countries in our data.
Key numbers
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Ethiopia among its neighbours
What counts as tall in Ethiopia
Read it as: a man of 185 cm in Ethiopia 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 Ethiopia is 8.0 cm. In practice that means about two thirds of men stand between 158.2 and 174.2 cm, and roughly 95% between 150.2 and 182.2 cm. A man of 174 cm is taller than about 84% of men here; one of 182 cm is taller than about 98%.
Men in Ethiopia are on average 10.5 cm taller than women. Compared with the global mean, men here are 4.8 cm shorter and women 3.3 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 Ethiopia?
- A man of 180 cm (5 ft 11 in) is taller than about 96% of men in Ethiopia. That is clearly tall here. For a woman, 180 cm is taller than >99% of women in Ethiopia.
- What is the average height of women in Ethiopia?
- Women in Ethiopia average 155.7 cm (5 ft 1 in), with a standard deviation of 7.5 cm. About two thirds of women are between 148.2 and 163.2 cm. That ranks 150th of 186 countries for women.
- How does Ethiopia compare to Honduras?
- Men in Honduras average 166.4 cm, 0.2 cm more than men in Ethiopia. Women average 153.8 cm against 155.7 cm. Honduras ranks 153rd, Ethiopia 154th.
- How does Ethiopia compare to the world average?
- The global mean is 171.0 cm for men and 159.0 cm for women. Men in Ethiopia are 4.8 cm shorter than that, women 3.3 cm shorter.
NCD-RisC does not publish standard deviations. SD for countries added in 2026-10 uses the global SD. Ethiopia 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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