A 5 feet height is definitely on the short side. But is this necessarily a bad thing?
As you’ll soon learn, height, in some respects, doesn’t appear to matter as much for women as it does for men. So if you’re worried that your 5 foot stature is too short, then this research-backed article should help to put your mind at ease.
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How tall is 5 foot?
The height of 5 feet is equal to 152.4 centimeters, which works out to 1.524 meters.
There are 60 inches in the height of 5 feet.
This conversion is useful because, in order to be as accurate as possible, height data is typically presented in centimeters and/or inches.
Obviously, most people understand that a 5 feet tall person is pretty short. But as for how short 5 feet is, that depends on your age and gender.
Related: How much should a 5 foot woman weigh?
Is 5 feet short for a woman?
Is 5 feet short for a woman? Yes, a height of 5 feet is very short for a woman who lives in the US and similar countries. The reason for this is that a height of 5 foot would put you in the 10th height percentile, meaning that you’d be shorter than around 90% of other women.
There is, of course, nothing inherently wrong with being 5 feet tall, and you can always give yourself a height boost by wearing high-heeled shoes.
Just don’t go overboard on the heels because research shows that women who wear high-heeled shoes actually have a lower quality of life and more foot problems than those who don’t. [1]
So, while 5’0 is definitely short for a female, there are still plenty of 5’0 women out there.
As for a 5’0 girl, there are plenty of 5 foot girls because every woman who’s taller than 5 feet had to be 5’0 at some point during her physical development.
In other words, if a girl is still growing, then there’s a good chance that she might exceed her current 5’0 height.
Is 5 feet short for a man?
Is 5 feet short for a man? Yes, 5 feet is exceptionally short for a man because such a height is 9 inches shorter than average for an adult male.
A 5 foot man would, in fact, be 10 centimeters shorter than the lowest height percentile for American men. So, again, while there’s nothing wrong with being a 5 foot male, such a height is undeniably short for an adult man.
Of course, a 5 foot boy who’s going through puberty will probably get quite a bit taller.
After all, as I said before, anyone who’s taller than 5 feet now had to have been 5 feet exactly at some point, and a boy really can grow a lot in the space of a year while he’s in puberty.
Is it good to be 5 feet tall?
If you like the idea of being petite, then being a 5 foot woman could definitely be a good thing. Indeed, many taller women actually don’t like their height and would prefer to be much shorter, so 5 feet is by no means a bad height.
Additionally, while women tend to prefer men who are taller than themselves, men don’t show similarly strong preferences for height. [2] As such, being a 5ft woman is, in a lot of cases, unlikely to put potential partners off.
Now, this isn’t to say that 5 feet women won’t face any challenges.
Some men, especially those who are significantly taller, might not like the idea of towering above their partner.
And also, certain tasks can be tricky for 5 foot tall women. Reaching things off tall shelves, whether at home or at the store, can be a constant frustration.
Moreover, since 5 foot is a pretty short height, some people might feel the need to comment on how short you are, which could get annoying after a while.
What does a 5 foot person look like?
So, what does a 5 foot person actually look like? As I alluded to previously, it depends on your age and gender. Here’s what I mean.
A 5 foot woman is obviously a much more common sight than a 5 foot man because males are generally much taller than females.
Similarly, the older generations tend to be shorter than the younger generations, meaning that older 5 foot women are more common than younger 5 feet women.
Still, in all cases, I would say that a 5 feet person looks noticeably short due to the fact that even an average woman will stand around 4-5 inches taller than them.
5 feet compared to 6 feet
When you see 5 foot next to 6 foot, you will begin to realize just how short a height of 5 feet really is. Six feet is a full 12 inches taller than 5 feet, which really does result in a massive height difference.
Since 5 feet compared to 6 feet is so tiny, it’s likely that the 5 foot person would look even shorter than they are because of the big height difference. The reverse of this is also true; the 6-footer would look even taller than they actually are due to the contrast of their height with that of the 5-footer.
The point of this 5ft vs 6ft comparison is to make the point that your perceived height differs based on who you’re standing next to.
So let’s say that a 5ft woman is standing next to some of her male co-workers. In this case, she will probably look tiny.
But if she’s standing next to her female friends, while she’ll still look short, she won’t look anywhere near as short as if she was standing next to a group of guys, for example.
Who are some famous celebrities that are 5’0?
Some 5’0 celebrities are Dolly Parton, Hayden Panettiere, Jessica Fox, Kourtney Kardashian, Kylie Minogue, Dawn French, and Louise Thompson.
Conclusion: Is 5ft a rare height or not?
Statistically, 5ft is a pretty rare height because a 5 ft woman would be shorter than roughly 90% of women that she encounters.
Yet, in the real world, 5 feet isn’t all that short for a woman because around 1 in 10 women are 5 feet tall.
Because of this, I don’t think that 5 foot is short to the point where you’ll get any unwanted attention for your height.
References
- López-López, D., Marañon-Medina, J., Losa-Iglesias, M. E., Calvo-Lobo, C., Rodríguez-Sanz, D., Palomo-López, P., & Vallejo, R. (2018). The influence of heel height related on quality of life on the foot in a sample of women. Revista da Associacao Medica Brasileira (1992), 64(4), 324–329. https://doi.org/10.1590/1806-9282.64.04.324
- Yancey, G., & Emerson, M. O. (2014). Does Height Matter? An Examination of Height Preferences in Romantic Coupling. Journal of Family Issues, 37(1), 53–73. https://doi.org/10.1177/0192513×13519256