Statesmen and stature: how tall are our world leaders?

It seems we like our political giants to be just that – giants – according to research. So how does France's new president François Hollande compare to past leaders?
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François Hollande will step into Nicolas Sarkozy's shoes today when he is sworn in at the Elysée palace, becoming France's first socialist leader in nearly 20 years. But how does he compare to the past leaders in terms of height?

Last year we were told stature really does matter according to a scientific paper published in Social Science Quarterly.

It was an opportunity too good to pass up so we compared the heights of various leaders from different countries and eras. Now we have a new leader in the pack we're asking once again how tall really are our leaders? We've also compared them to the average height of statesmen of their country over the last 40 years.

At 5ft 7ins, Hollande is two inches taller than Sarkozy but also two inches shorter than the average height for French leaders of the past 40 years. Both David Cameron and Barack Obama beat the average height, standing tall at 6ft 1. As the first female Chancellor of Germany, it's not suprising that Angela Merkel stands 5 inches shorter than the average height for German leaders.

In the scientific paper published last year psychologists from Texas Tech University found in a study that almost two-thirds of participants showed a preference to draw larger figures when asked to draw images of leaders. An evolutionary throwback has been suggested as the root of this. Nic Fleming wrote:

It is not for nothing that top politicians are known as political giants or "big beasts". Voters see tall politicians as better suited for leadership, according to a survey of how people visualise their leaders. Psychologists believe the bias may stem from an evolved preference for physically imposing chiefs who could dominate enemies.

Cameron, Obama and Hollande have all beaten shorter candidates in past elections – Gordon Brown at 5ft 11ins, John McCain at 5ft 8ins and Sarkozy at 5ft 5ins.

The work, published by Dr Gregg Murray and J. David Schmitz, found evidence that would suggest physical stature affects people's preferences for political leadership. The paper entitled 'Caveman Politics' on evolutionary psychology relates it back to ideas and beliefs gleaned from our prehistoric ancestors.

Well, apart from Cameron, Obama and Canada's Stephen Harper who all come in at over six foot there are some current political leaders who are rather more diminutive. Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is placed at somewhere around the 5ft 2ins mark.

America certainly seem to be following the rule with all but one of the US presidents in our list coming in at six foot or over. The UK have rather a mixed bag from Margaret Thatcher (5ft 5ins) and Winston Churchill (5ft 6ins) to Robert Gascoyne-Cecil who is believed to have been 6ft 4ins.

The table below shows a selection of world leaders, past and present, and their stature. Those in bold are current leaders.

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This article was amended on 7 February 2014 to remove a duplication of François Hollande in the table and spreadsheet which incorrectly named him as a German leader as well as the current President of France.

Data summary

Heights of leaders - past and present

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Name
Height, Cm
Height, Feet and inches (rounded to nearest)
Country (leader of )
Abdelaziz Bouteflika 159 5'2 Algeria
Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner 164 5'4 Argentina
Julia Eileen Gillard 166 5'5 Australia
Stephen Harper 188 6'2 Canada
Fidel Castro 190 6'3 Cuba
Tarja Halonen 172 5'8 Finland
François Hollande 170 5'7 France
Nicolas Sarkozy 165 5'5 France
Napoleon 168 5'6 France
Jacques Chirac 189 6'2 France
François Mitterrand 172 5'7 France
Valéry Giscard d’Estaing 189 6'2 France
Georges Pompidou 181 5'11 France
Charles de Gaulle 196 6'5 France
Angela Merkel 165 5'5 Germany
Gerhard Schröder 174 5'8 Germany
Helmut Kohl 193 6'4 Germany
Adolf Hitler 173 5'8 Germany
Viktor Orban 174 5'8 Hungary
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad 157 5'2 Iran
Saddam Hussein 188 6'2 Iraq
David Ben Gurion 152 5'0 Israel
Silvio Berlusconi 165 5'5 Italy
Benito Mussolini 169 5'6 Italy
Yasuo Fukuda 169 5'6 Japan
Kim Yong Ill 160 5'3 Korea (North)
Muammar Gaddafi 183 6'0 Libya
Benito Juarez 137 4'6 Mexico
Josef Stalin 165 5'5 Russia
Dmitry Medvedev 163 5'4 Russia
Vladimir Putin 170 5'7 Russia
Boris Yeltsin 187 6'1 Russia
Vladimir Lenin 165 5'5 Russia
Tony Blair 183 6'0 UK
David Cameron 185 6'1 UK
Winston Churchill 168 5'6 UK
Gordon Brown 180 5'11 UK
Nick Clegg 185 6'1 UK
Margaret Thatcher 165 5'5 UK
Robert Gascoyne-Cecil 193 6'4 UK
Sir Alec Douglas-Home 185 6'1 UK
James Callaghan 185 6'1 UK
Edward Heath 183 6'0 UK
John Major 180 5'11 UK
Queen Elizabeth II 163 5'4 UK
Harold Wilson 173 5'8 UK
George W. Bush 182 5'11 USA
Barack Obama 185 6'1 USA
John F Kennedy 183 6'0 USA
George Washington 187 6'2 USA
Abraham Lincoln 193 6'4 USA
Ronald Reagan 185 6'1 USA
Bill Clinton 184 6'2 USA
George H.W Bush 188 6'2 USA
Gerald Ford 183 6'0 USA
Richard Nixon 182 5'11 USA
Hugo Chávez 173 5'8 Venezuela

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Statesmen and stature

Statesmen and stature. Graphic: Jenny Ridley