Which ethically has the shortest smallest women
Executive summary
The populations with the shortest average adult women are concentrated in parts of Central America and South/Southeast Asia, with Guatemala and Timor-Leste consistently appearing near the bottom in large international analyses [1] [2]. However, labeling an “ethnicity” as the shortest is imprecise: most data are reported by country or region and reflect a mix of genetics, chronic undernutrition, altitude, and socioeconomic factors rather than a single ethnic determinant [3] [4].
1. Which countries (and therefore which populations) appear shortest in the data
Large, peer-reviewed and aggregated datasets identify women in Guatemala among the shortest recorded globally — Imperial College’s 100‑year height study reported Guatemala’s women averaging about 149 cm in 2014, and other compilations place Guatemala, Timor-Leste, Laos, and several Central American and Southeast Asian countries at the bottom of national rankings [1] [2] [5]. News and data outlets that averaged male and female figures using NCD Risk Factor Collaboration or national surveys also list many South Asian and Southeast Asian countries among those with the smallest mean statures [6] [7].
2. Why country-level data aren’t perfect proxies for “ethnicity”
Most public height datasets are organized by nation-state, not by ethnic group, so the shortest national averages reflect the demographics and living conditions of countries rather than a single genetic or cultural lineage; within-country variation can be large — for example, different regions and social groups in the same country can differ by several centimeters [8] [4]. Scientific reviews underline that environmental factors such as childhood nutrition and disease burden drive much of the variation in average adult height, and affluent subpopulations often match international growth standards irrespective of ethnicity [4] [3].
3. Genetics, environment and how they interact to produce “shortest” populations
Genetic predisposition contributes substantially to individual height, but population-level shortness typically reflects long-standing environmental constraints: chronic child undernutrition, repeated infections, and poverty stunting growth are repeatedly cited drivers in the literature and reporting that compare global height differences [3] [6]. The PMC review highlights striking extremes — for example, Central African Pygmy groups average under 150 cm while some European groups are much taller — illustrating both genetic diversity and environmental overlays [4].
4. Measurement differences, time trends and caution about headlines
Comparisons across studies can be skewed by methodology — measured versus self‑reported height, age ranges, urban versus rural sampling, and whether male and female averages are combined — so headlines like “country X has the smallest women” often simplify complex, changing data [8] [6]. Longitudinal work shows substantial secular changes: several East Asian countries experienced large increases in average height across the 20th century, while some countries have stagnated or even declined, meaning that “shortest” is a snapshot, not an immutable trait [3] [1].
5. Bottom line and limits of the sources
The most robust international analyses point to Guatemala and parts of South/Southeast Asia (including Timor-Leste and neighboring states) as having some of the shortest national average female heights, but asserting that any single “ethnicity” is the shortest oversteps the scope of country-level reporting and available data [1] [2] [3]. Sources used here aggregate country-level surveys and academic reviews; they do not provide comprehensive, comparable ethnicity-level height distributions across all regions, so definitive ethnicity-based ranking is not supported by the cited datasets [8] [4].