Everyone knows the Dutch are tall. Places two to ten are a mix of Balkan and Baltic countries that few people can order correctly. Guess the men's and women's rankings separately, then see the top 20 in centimetres.
How it works
- Press START and a ranking board from 1st to 20th appears on the left. Ranks 11 to 20 are shown from the start; ranks 1 to 10 are hidden.
- On the right are ten shuffled cards: the hidden top-10 countrys. None of them overlaps with the visible ranks 11 to 20, so which countrys are in the top ten is settled; the question is the order.
- You guess from 10th place upward. When "Who is #10?" appears, tap a card. A correct pick slides into that row on the left and reveals its figure.
- A wrong pick does not reveal the answer. The card shakes red and you lose one try, leaving three more tries for that rank. Only after four wrong picks is the answer revealed, and the row is marked as missed.
- Continue through 9th, 8thโฆ up to 1st. Your score is the number of ranks solved plus a miss count, and each row shows on which try you got it. The search box under the results ranks any entry in the full list, even outside the top 20.
Scoring and records
The score is the number of ranks solved, out of ten; wrong picks are counted separately as misses. Between two perfect runs, fewer misses is the better record, and your best is saved in this browser. The visible figures for ranks 11 to 20 are your hints: the 10th-place value must be at least the 11th, so use the lower ranks to judge which country sits near the border. As you climb, fewer cards remain and 1st place is settled by elimination, so the real contest is getting 10th through 2nd right without a miss.
The data: adults born in the same year
Average height figures vary wildly by source, because some countries measure only 20-year-old men at conscription while others survey all ages with self-reported heights. To avoid that, this quiz uses country estimates from the NCD Risk Factor Collaboration (NCD-RisC), published in 2016. The study pooled about 1,400 population surveys and estimated, with one method for all 197 countries, the adult height of people born in 1996. The dataset comes from Our World in Data as published.
By this measure the tallest men are in the Netherlands (182.5 cm), followed by Belgium, Estonia, Denmark and Latvia in the 181 cm range. The tallest women are in Latvia (169.8 cm), then the Netherlands and Estonia (168.7 cm) and Czechia (168.5 cm). Almost the entire top 20 is Northern, Baltic, Balkan and Central European; countries outside Europe barely appear. Thinking "somewhere in Eastern Europe" scores better than picking famous countries.
Where do the English-speaking countries rank?
In the same dataset men born in 1996 average about 177.1 cm in the United States (women 163.5 cm), which places the US in the 30s and 40s rather than near the top. The United Kingdom, Canada and Australia sit in a similar band, with men around 177 to 179 cm. Use the search box on the result screen to find your own country's exact rank and value. South Korea, at 174.9 cm for men and 162.3 cm for women, is the tallest East Asian country, and Korean women gained about 20 cm over the century covered by the study, more than any other group.
Frequently asked questions
Why start from 10th place?
Almost everyone knows number one, so starting there makes the first question trivial, and with a shrinking pool the last pick would be automatic. Going upward, you tackle the hardest ranks around 10th while the pool is full, and finish by choosing 1st from what is left.
Does a wrong pick reveal the answer?
No. You get up to four picks per rank (one plus three more tries). A wrong card stays in the pool because it may be right for another rank, and the answer is revealed only after four wrong picks.
Is 1st place automatic at the end?
Yes. With one card left, 1st place is settled. That is why the score tops out at ten and records are separated by misses. The real goal is to get 10th through 2nd right without a miss, and the result board shows on which try you solved each rank.
The figures differ from what I have read.
Commonly quoted averages mix institutions, age ranges and measurement methods. This page uses a single birth cohort estimated with one statistical model, which is ideal for comparing countries but is not the same as the average of a country's whole population in a given year.
Why the 1996 birth year?
It is the most recent cohort estimated by the NCD-RisC study, which tracked height at age 18 to 19 for people born from 1896 to 1996, a full century of change.
Why are the men's and women's lists different?
The gap between men and women varies slightly by country, so the top ten is composed differently on each board. Latvia, for instance, ranks higher on the women's board than on the men's.
How do I share a result?
The share button on the result screen copies your score and board (Men or Women) with a link to this page, or opens your device's share sheet.
Related tools
- BMI, BMR & Calorie Calculator โ put your own height and weight to use.
- World Population Ranking Quiz โ population giants and tall nations are very different lists.
- Blood Type by Country Quiz โ another ranking with surprising leaders.
Full top 20
As of: Adult height of the 1996 birth cohort (NCD-RisC 2016) ยท Source: NCD Risk Factor Collaboration via Our World in Data
Show the top 20 answer table (spoiler) โ Men
| Rank | Name | Value |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | ๐ณ๐ฑ Netherlands | 182.5 cm |
| 2 | ๐ง๐ช Belgium | 181.7 cm |
| 3 | ๐ช๐ช Estonia | 181.6 cm |
| 4 | ๐ฉ๐ฐ Denmark | 181.4 cm |
| 5 | ๐ฑ๐ป Latvia | 181.4 cm |
| 6 | ๐ง๐ฆ Bosnia and Herzegovina | 180.9 cm |
| 7 | ๐ญ๐ท Croatia | 180.8 cm |
| 8 | ๐ท๐ธ Serbia | 180.6 cm |
| 9 | ๐ฎ๐ธ Iceland | 180.5 cm |
| 10 | ๐จ๐ฟ Czechia | 180.1 cm |
| 11 | ๐ฉ๐ช Germany | 179.9 cm |
| 12 | ๐ธ๐ฎ Slovenia | 179.8 cm |
| 13 | ๐ซ๐ท France | 179.7 cm |
| 14 | ๐ณ๐ด Norway | 179.7 cm |
| 15 | ๐ธ๐ช Sweden | 179.7 cm |
| 16 | ๐ซ๐ฎ Finland | 179.6 cm |
| 17 | ๐ธ๐ฐ Slovakia | 179.5 cm |
| 18 | ๐ฆ๐บ Australia | 179.2 cm |
| 19 | ๐ฑ๐น Lithuania | 179.0 cm |
| 20 | ๐ฎ๐ช Ireland | 178.9 cm |
Show the top 20 answer table (spoiler) โ Women
| Rank | Name | Value |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | ๐ฑ๐ป Latvia | 169.8 cm |
| 2 | ๐ณ๐ฑ Netherlands | 168.7 cm |
| 3 | ๐ช๐ช Estonia | 168.7 cm |
| 4 | ๐จ๐ฟ Czechia | 168.5 cm |
| 5 | ๐ท๐ธ Serbia | 167.7 cm |
| 6 | ๐ธ๐ฐ Slovakia | 167.5 cm |
| 7 | ๐ฉ๐ฐ Denmark | 167.2 cm |
| 8 | ๐ฑ๐น Lithuania | 166.6 cm |
| 9 | ๐บ๐ฆ Ukraine | 166.3 cm |
| 10 | ๐ง๐พ Belarus | 166.3 cm |
| 11 | ๐ธ๐ฎ Slovenia | 166.1 cm |
| 12 | ๐ฎ๐ธ Iceland | 165.9 cm |
| 13 | ๐ฉ๐ช Germany | 165.9 cm |
| 14 | ๐ซ๐ฎ Finland | 165.9 cm |
| 15 | ๐ฆ๐บ Australia | 165.9 cm |
| 16 | ๐ง๐ฆ Bosnia and Herzegovina | 165.8 cm |
| 17 | ๐ธ๐ช Sweden | 165.7 cm |
| 18 | ๐ญ๐ท Croatia | 165.6 cm |
| 19 | ๐ณ๐ด Norway | 165.6 cm |
| 20 | ๐ง๐ช Belgium | 165.5 cm |