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LiveScience
LiveScience
Elana Spivack

Why are men taller than women, on average?

Estrogen Hormones Live Science
A short woman stands back-to-back with a much taller man.

On average, human males tend to be about 5 inches (13 centimeters) taller than females. But why?

In short, we're not sure. Even though this sex-linked height difference exists across the world, we still lack a full scientific understanding of why. But we do have a few clues from sex-linked genes and hormones that are helping to unravel this mystery.

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