Are people in the Seattle area shorter or taller on average?

[blackprince206]

Originally Posted by Ira500

I'd say people in the Seattle area are taller than average, but average is shorter than you think: The average American male is 5'9, the average American woman is something like 5'5. Also, maybe it depends on where in the Seattle area you are. Maybe Ballard's taller than Lake City or Renton.
And, just a theory here: Seattle has had a recent influx of people working in the tech industry, and they're mostly male. And they're from all over, including from places where people tend to run shorter.

This is absolutely false. The average height has remained stable for many decades. It has been 5’9 in Seattle and nationally. Southern states tend to have more men above that line and northern states may have more men below it, but the overall population levels correlate with the proportions. That is, in states where you have a larger number of men who are above ir below the average, you have larger populations of men, so the averages are still met. The influx of tech workers, whom you assume to be below average despite the fact that many also come from Europe, Africa and places where tall men live, has nothing to do with it. And a good number of Asian men are in fact taller than 5’9. I attended Northeastern University (Seattle Campus, South Lake Union), and most of the make students were Asian. The average male height at our school was still about 5’9 based on my observations. I’m 5’10-1/2, and I would say that most of the men were just a little shorter than I was, while the number of men who were significantly shorter than I was (i.e., 5’8 or shorter) was about the same as the number of men who were taller than I was.