Height Percentile Calculator
Enter an adult height (20 and over) and a sex, and see where it falls among US adults, interpolated from CDC's published percentile tables.
5'8.0" (172.7 cm) is at the
37.4th percentile
among US adults aged 20 and over
CDC tabulated percentiles — men, 20 and over
| 5th | 10th | 15th | 25th | 50th | 75th | 85th | 90th | 95th |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 162.8 cm | 165.8 cm | 167.6 cm | 170.1 cm | 175.4 cm | 180.2 cm | 182.9 cm | 184.7 cm | 187.4 cm |
Source: CDC/NCHS, Anthropometric Reference Data for Children and Adults: United States, 2015–2018 (Vital and Health Statistics, Series 3, No. 46, January 2021) — Table 11 (height in centimeters, males aged 20 and over, all races and Hispanic-origin groups, ‘20 and over’ row), p. 15.
How it's calculated
Your height is converted to centimeters, then located between the two nearest tabulated CDC percentile points for the sex you chose. The percentile is interpolated linearly between them:
percentile = plow + (height − hlow) ÷ (hhigh − hlow) × (phigh − plow)
Worked example
The calculator's own default: 5'8" (172.7 cm), male -- deliberately not one of CDC's tabulated points, so the number below is genuinely interpolated, not a table lookup. It falls between the 25th-percentile point (170.1 cm) and the 50th-percentile point (175.4 cm):
| Fraction of the way from 170.1 to 175.4 cm | (172.7 − 170.1) ÷ (175.4 − 170.1) = 0.494 |
| Interpolated percentile | 25 + 0.494 × 25 = 37.4th |
Enter 5'8" and male into the calculator above and it lands on this exact figure -- checked against an independently hand-worked value in the site's own test suite, not just re-derived here.
Frequently Asked Questions
What population is this percentile relative to?
US adults aged 20 and over, all races and Hispanic-origin groups combined, from the 2015–2018 NHANES survey cycle (CDC/NCHS, Anthropometric Reference Data for Children and Adults: United States, 2015–2018 (Vital and Health Statistics, Series 3, No. 46, January 2021)). It is not specific to your age within adulthood, your race, or any other subgroup CDC's fuller tables break out -- this calculator uses the broadest "20 and over, all groups" row on purpose, for a single general-population answer.
How does the interpolation work, and what's its limitation?
CDC publishes nine percentile points per sex (5th, 10th, 15th, 25th, 50th, 75th, 85th, 90th, 95th) with a tabulated height for each. For a height that falls between two published points, this calculator draws a straight line between them and reads off where your height lands on it -- linear interpolation. That's an approximation of the true underlying distribution, not a value CDC itself published; it's most accurate near the middle of the range and progressively rougher near the tabulated endpoints, where the true distribution curves more than a straight line captures.
Why does it say "<5th" or ">95th" instead of a specific number for some heights?
CDC's table doesn't extend past the 5th and 95th percentile points, so there's no adjacent tabulated value to interpolate from beyond those ends. Rather than extrapolate a number CDC never published, this calculator reports the height as outside the tabulated range.
Is a higher percentile "better"?
No -- percentile here is purely descriptive, showing where a height sits in the adult population, with no judgment attached. It's not a growth or health metric (that's a pediatric concept for children's growth charts, not adult height, which this tool doesn't cover).
These are reference figures, not a real-world measurement of you or anyone else. This site isn't affiliated with the CDC, the NBA, FIBA, or any manufacturer whose products are referenced as scale objects -- see the Terms.