Big and Little Facts About Your Height

On the other hand, being shorter may spell a higher risk of heart disease, according to a study in European Heart Journal. Researchers found that the shortest adults (under 5 feet 3 inches) had a higher risk of having and dying from cardiovascular disease than taller people. A study published in the New England Journal of Medicine found that genes linked to height can increase your risk of heart disease. The increase is, on average, 13.5 percent for every 2.5 inches shorter the person is. Other studies have found that low socioeconomic status — and its connection to poor nutrition and infections early in life — may be to blame for the heart disease-height link.

Numerous studies have found that, on average, taller people not only hold jobs of higher status (for instance, sales managers are taller than salespeople), they also earn more money. In fact, a classic study in the Journal of Applied Psychology found that people make $789 more per year for each inch above average height they are. Looking at it another way, a person who’s 6 feet tall would earn $166,000 more over a 30-year career than a person who’s 7 inches shorter. The findings help up even after researchers controlled for things like gender, weight, and age.

“Height affects how individuals regard themselves, which is self esteem, and how individuals are regarded by others, called social esteem,” explains study co-author Daniel Cable, PhD, a professor of organizational behavior at London Business School. “Social and self esteem affect individuals’ job performance and how supervisors evaluate job performance, which in turn affects career success.”