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What is the average height of French presidents?
Executive summary
Available sources give multiple estimates for the average height of French presidents but no single authoritative dataset; two sample figures reported are 1.75 m (175 cm) and 1.78 m (178 cm) for different time ranges [1] [2]. Most reporting about the current president, Emmanuel Macron, places him near 1.72–1.73 m, which reporters use as a point of comparison when discussing presidential-average claims [3] [4] [5].
1. What reporters actually measure: “average” varies by sample
Different outlets are using different lists and time windows when they publish an “average height” for French presidents: one summary claims an average of 1.75 m without giving a full methodological breakdown [1], while another headline asserts an average since 1958 of 178 cm, implying a choice to limit the sample to Fifth Republic presidents [2]. Those two figures cannot both be true for the same list of presidents, which demonstrates that reported averages depend on which presidents are included and how outliers are treated [1] [2].
2. The Macron benchmark: why his height gets mentioned in every story
Multiple articles report Emmanuel Macron’s height around 172–173 cm (often 172.5 cm or 173 cm) and use that number to frame whether he is “average” or “short” for a French president or the French population [3] [4] [5]. Because Macron is a recent, prominent incumbent, his listed height is frequently cited when journalists compare him to past presidents and compute informal averages [3] [4].
3. Sources differ on units and rounding — small differences matter
Some pieces give Macron at 172.5 cm (5 ft 8 in) and others at 173 cm (5 ft 8 in), while broader “average” claims are rounded to 1.75 m or 1.78 m [3] [5] [1] [2]. These modest rounding differences shift an average by a few centimeters, showing how reporting choices (which presidents, how many decimals, whether to convert from imperial units) change the headline number [3] [2] [1].
4. Historical extremes drive the headline averages
Reports that list tall past presidents — for example Charles de Gaulle at about 1.96 m and Valéry Giscard d’Estaing at about 1.92 m — suggest those outliers can pull an arithmetic mean upward; one source explicitly names those tall presidents while also listing shorter historical figures like Adolphe Thiers at 1.68 m [1]. If an average includes de Gaulle and Giscard d’Estaing, it will be higher than an average that omits 19th-century presidents or uses median rather than mean [1].
5. What the current reporting does not show: methodology and completeness
None of the provided sources publish a full, transparent dataset or methodology showing every president, their verified heights, and the calculation used to derive the average; they instead offer summary numbers or selective examples [2] [1] [5]. Available sources do not mention a peer‑reviewed study or government record standardizing presidential heights for an unequivocal average (not found in current reporting).
6. Competing interpretations: significance vs. curiosity
Some outlets treat presidential height as a curiosity or a lens on perceived authority and electoral advantage, noting studies (in other contexts) that taller candidates sometimes fare better; others merely report numbers as trivia while using Macron as the reference point [1] [6]. The sources provided show journalists sometimes imply a link between height and electability without providing causal evidence specific to French elections [1] [6].
7. How to get a more reliable figure
To produce a defensible average you would need: (a) a complete list of presidents to include (e.g., all presidents since the French Revolution, or only Fifth Republic presidents since 1958), (b) a single authority or primary-source measurements for each president, and (c) a decision whether to use mean, median, or trimmed mean. None of those steps are documented in the available writeups, which is why published averages differ [2] [1].
8. Bottom line for readers
Published claims about the “average” height of French presidents range — examples here show roughly 1.75 m (175 cm) in one report and 1.78 m (178 cm) for presidents since 1958 in another — and these differences reflect different samples and reporting choices rather than a settled fact [1] [2]. Emmanuel Macron’s height is consistently reported near 172–173 cm and is commonly used as the contemporary comparison point [3] [4] [5].
If you want, I can attempt to compute a transparent average using a defined list (e.g., Fifth Republic presidents only) from the sources here — or I can search for primary-source records of individual presidents’ heights to produce a reproducible figure.