Height Forum

This is the detailed report on the survey results collected between July 2009 and December 2009, which included questions like height, weight, gender, age, sleep, etc. The purpose of that survey was to determine the average height of the people who visit this website and to find out what kind of people they are. Are the "height seekers" significantly shorter than other people? Are they stil growing naturally, or is that window already passed for them? Let's find out, shall we?

Sample Population and Size

First of all, I'd like to acknowledge that the sampled population was hardly representative. The people who visit Height Forum are more likely be acitve height seekers. For this reason, do not interpret the data as general information. They do though, give you clues to some questions you may have.

The total number of people surveyed was 358, with 315 males and 43 females, or a male-to-female ratio of 7.3. I wish more people had participated in the survey, but this number is still ok to work with. I did throw out a few surveys, which were obviously filled out by jerks who intended to screw up the averages. I highly doubt that a 16-inch dude can clock in at 150 lbs. Anyways, here is an awesome pie chart for your viewing pleasure:

Gender Ratio in the 2009 Height Survey

We can safely reason from this that guys are more sensitive about their heights and are more likely to seek information concerning their statures. This makes sense because tallness is usually associated with masculinity.

Geographic and Ethnic Distributions

The geographic survey was the most skewed question of them all. It is heavily biased towards regions where internet is easily accessible. You can't, after all, visit HF without getting online first. Nevertheless, I present you the distribution:

Geographic Distribution of People Surveyed

Besides Australia, which represent a surprisingly small portion of the population, the results basically reflect the world's internet usage. Not much can be induced here. Let's move on to the ethnic distribution.

Ethnic/Racial Distribution

The ethnic/racial survey choices did not include all possible human races. First of all, it would be impossible to categorize everything. Second, it would be downright wrong. Instead, I picked a few broad ones that people are familiar with:

Note: The colors on this chart have absolutely nothing to do with the geographic distribution (previous chart).

Racial/Ethnic Distribution of Survey

Interestingly, whites and Asians are the most numerous, which stand at 44% and 32% of all the people surveyed, respectively. White people are expected to lead the crowd because they represent the largest ethnic group in both North America and Europe. I have two theories, however, to why the Asians come in second. The first is that there is prominent Asian populations in North America and Europe, and this graph simply shows that. The second theory is that Asians tend to be more sensitive about their heights.

African descendants occupy a surprisingly low area in the pie chart, especially when they make up a significant portion of the population in the Americas and some parts of Europe. But it is possible that the small sample failed to represent all parties well.

Average Age, Height, and Weight

Let's get to the point in this section. Colorful charts are useless for displaying simple averages, so I'll just list them:

Survey Average Age:

• Overall Average (both genders): 20.3 years old
• Male Average: 20.4 years old
• Female Average: 19.8 years old

Survey Average Heights:

• Overall Average: 5 feet 7.2 inches = 5.6 feet = 170.7 cm
• Male Average: 5 feet 7.8 inches = 5.65 feet = 172.3 cm
• Female Average: 5 feet 2.7 inches = 5.22 feet = 159.2 cm

Survey Average Weights:

• Overall Average: 147.9 lb = 67.1 kg
• Male Average: 151.3 lb = 68.6 kg
• Female Average: 122.6 lb = 55.6 kg

Average Heights Distributed Among Various Age Groups

Because height changes with age up to a certain point, I've computed the average heights for various age groups. The differences among age groups are small so that the trend can be better observed:

Note: The height (vertical axis) is given in English feet units only. For example, 5.7 feet = 5 feet 8.4 inches = 173.7 cm. It is NOT 5 feet 7 inches!

Average Heights Among Age Groups

The results are not all that consistent due to low number of people surveyed. Some averages may only be calculated from a few people (particularly true in girls), while some are concluded from larger samples. However, we do see a rough trend of height increase from the age of 11 to the age of 16 and stabilization thereafter (in guys).

Are They Still Growing

One of the questions in the survey asked if the individual think he or she was still growing taller. I separated the results by genders:

Do They Think They're Still Growing?

Average Hours of Sleep

Because sleep is important to height growth, I also asked people how much they sleep on average. Both genders revealed getting similar amount of sleep:

• Average Sleep: 7.77 hours
• Male Average: 7.78 hours
  
• Female Average: 7.67 hours

0.1 hour is only 6 minutes, so everyone basically sleeps the same amount. Guys just hit the snooze buttons a few more times they the girls do.

That's all the analysis I have done so far. I hope this provided you with some useful information. Of course, even more detailed analysis can be carried out. Tell me what you would like to see in the 2009 survey and how I can improve in 2010 in the forum.