This random height generator gives random heights in centimeters and in feet and inches. It can give realistic heights for adult men or women, or heights in a range that you select. Use it for characters in stories and games, class exercises, prototypes and sample data.
How to Generate a Random Height
- Select a height pattern: Any, Men or Women.
- If necessary, change the minimum height and the maximum height.
- Type how many heights you need, from 1 to 100.
- Click Pick a height.
- Click Copy result, or download the heights as a TXT file.
To show feet and inches first, select ft / in. The tool does not pick a new height when you change the units.
Realistic Male and Female Heights
Real heights are not spread equally across a range. Most people are near the average height, and few people are very short or very tall. The Men and Women patterns use a bell curve (normal distribution) around the average heights of US adults aged 20 and over:
| Pattern | Average | Middle 90% | Standard deviation |
|---|---|---|---|
| Men | 175.3 cm (5 ft 9 in) | 162.8–187.4 cm | 7.5 cm |
| Women | 161.3 cm (5 ft 3.5 in) | 149.8–172.5 cm | 6.9 cm |
These averages come from the CDC National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, 2015–2018. The standard deviation comes from the 5th and the 95th percentiles in that survey. Source: Anthropometric Reference Data for Children and Adults: United States, 2015–2018, tables 9 and 11.
With the Men pattern, approximately 9 of 10 results are between 5 ft 4 in and 6 ft 2 in. A result of 6 ft 6 in is rare. The tool never picks a height below the minimum or above the maximum.
These patterns are for US adults only. They are not medical estimates, and they do not predict the height of a child. They do not show the heights of other populations.
Any Range With Equal Chances
The Any pattern gives the same chance to each whole centimeter in the range. For a range of 150 to 200 cm, there are 51 possible heights. The range includes the minimum and the maximum. You can use heights from 1 to 300 cm. If the minimum and the maximum are the same, the tool gives that height.
Units
The tool picks whole centimeters. It calculates feet and inches with the exact conversion, 1 inch = 2.54 cm. Then it rounds to the nearest inch.
For example, 175 cm is 68.90 inches, so the tool shows 5 ft 9 in. The tool rounds the total inches before it calculates the feet. Because of this, it never shows an incorrect value such as 5 ft 12 in.
When you type a range in feet and inches, the tool changes it to the nearest whole centimeter.
More Than One Height
You can pick up to 100 heights at one time. Usually, the same height can occur more than one time. To get a different centimeter value for each height, select No repeats (cm). The quantity must then not be more than the number of heights in the range.
Two different centimeter values can have the same feet and inches value, because the tool rounds to the nearest inch. No repeats applies to centimeters, not to feet and inches. The copied text and the TXT file show both units.
The diagram uses a fixed scale from 0 to 300 cm. For one height, a line shows the height. For more than one height, the diagram shows up to 8 people side by side, or 4 on a small screen. A table shows all of the heights. The figures show height only. They do not show the correct shape of a person.
Random Numbers and Privacy
The tool gets random numbers from the crypto.getRandomValues function of your browser. It uses rejection sampling, so each height has the correct chance. The Men and Women patterns give each centimeter a weight from the bell curve. When you select No repeats, the tool does not pick a height two times.
Your heights stay in this tab. The tool does not upload them, and it does not save them in a profile. When you close or reload the page, the tool clears the list of recent heights. Do not use this tool for decisions that need a certified random record.