Average Length of Hair by Country

[Brandt]

Ah--finally the "geek statistic" I've been looking for--the average hair length is listed by country for many countries around the world, and that even includes men vs. women. In many cases, it's a tie--for example, 3 countries with a lot of LHC members, the US, Sweden and Finland all are at 10" for all genders combined, 7" for men and 13" for women. Not surprisingly, the country with the longest average hair for women is India (though men's hair is shorter overall there). I'm a bit surprised that Italy is in last place among countries with data for both men and women. I'm not sure how they collected the data (and even they have admitted these are estimates), but I'm guessing it's at least partially self reported as they include some countries where many people (not just women but men too) cover up their hair, like Saudi Arabia. I definitely don't entirely think this is accurate (if it's self-reported, are long-haired people more likely to report because it's more fun to announce a long hair length than someone with shorter hair?).

Here's the data: https://worldpopulationreview.com/co...gth-by-country

[evernia]

hmm, this is super interesting, though it's a shame that the data isn't really sourced - it links a medium.com article as a source, here. that one has a very different graph and very different lengths (notably it says that the equator countries had the shortest hair, not italy). the graph is here, but it sadly doesn't tell you what the numbers mean, if it's inches or something else. and there's no source as well. just says "collected by various NGOs" without even linking the data.

based on the way it's formatted, it looks like a copy-pasted article from some pdf, but i can't find any exact match for it in any public directory, might be worth messaging the authors. hair length of 7 inches or more is very rare for men here so it seems really fishy, unless they had a few knee-length metalheads skewing the results

[evernia]

or maybe men tend to self-report 7 inches no matter the question being asked?

[Bri-Chan]

I don't know, having lived in both Italy and Germany my personal experience is different.

[LongLocke]

hmm, this is super interesting, though it's a shame that the data isn't really sourced - it links a medium.com article as a source, here. that one has a very different graph and very different lengths (notably it says that the equator countries had the shortest hair, not italy). the graph is here, but it sadly doesn't tell you what the numbers mean, if it's inches or something else. and there's no source as well. just says "collected by various NGOs" without even linking the data.

based on the way it's formatted, it looks like a copy-pasted article from some pdf, but i can't find any exact match for it in any public directory, might be worth messaging the authors. hair length of 7 inches or more is very rare for men here so it seems really fishy, unless they had a few knee-length metalheads skewing the results

Yeah. I noticed that as well when I clicked through to the source. I've traveled all over the United States, and I would agree that there is no way that the average length of male hair is 7 inches.

[Chasemi]

I would be fascinated to see a report of this that is sourced better.... maybe we should get to work!

[Brandt]

hmm, this is super interesting, though it's a shame that the data isn't really sourced - it links a medium.com article as a source, here. that one has a very different graph and very different lengths (notably it says that the equator countries had the shortest hair, not italy). the graph is here, but it sadly doesn't tell you what the numbers mean, if it's inches or something else. and there's no source as well. just says "collected by various NGOs" without even linking the data.

based on the way it's formatted, it looks like a copy-pasted article from some pdf, but i can't find any exact match for it in any public directory, might be worth messaging the authors. hair length of 7 inches or more is very rare for men here so it seems really fishy, unless they had a few knee-length metalheads skewing the results

That looks like a much better link, even though the data still come in ranges. They do look at the latitude, which shows the slight correlation between latitude and hair length (with shorter hair in the equatorial areas--though if it's related to heat, then at least for women, India would buck that trend being a country with an overall high average temperature, and Russia likewise except with a shorter hair/lower average temperature). But, yeah, the 7 inch average for a male seems a bit long, even for our current 2020s longer standard, or even the late 1960s and 1970s at least in the US.

[Todd]

But, yeah, the 7 inch average for a male seems a bit long, even for our current 2020s longer standard, or even the late 1960s and 1970s at least in the US.

I agree.... I look around my workplace and all those other guys have hair about an inch long, or less. I don't think there's any that are longer. My hair is about 30 inches (I think) and even factoring that into the mix doesn't bring the average to seven inches.

[Nefcerka]

It´s nice that someone is finally putting the effort into making a hair-length statistic, but this particular one does not seem very accurate to me.

[ReiHino]

Ah--finally the "geek statistic" I've been looking for--the average hair length is listed by country for many countries around the world, and that even includes men vs. women. In many cases, it's a tie--for example, 3 countries with a lot of LHC members, the US, Sweden and Finland all are at 10" for all genders combined, 7" for men and 13" for women. Not surprisingly, the country with the longest average hair for women is India (though men's hair is shorter overall there). I'm a bit surprised that Italy is in last place among countries with data for both men and women. I'm not sure how they collected the data (and even they have admitted these are estimates), but I'm guessing it's at least partially self reported as they include some countries where many people (not just women but men too) cover up their hair, like Saudi Arabia. I definitely don't entirely think this is accurate (if it's self-reported, are long-haired people more likely to report because it's more fun to announce a long hair length than someone with shorter hair?).

Here's the data: https://worldpopulationreview.com/co...gth-by-country

I´m in Italy and I´m not sure why you´re surprised. You have to consider we have an old population and I would say most young women don´t go past shoulder lenght. 23 cm (9 inches) seems good to me.