American men are typically 5 feet, 9 inches (175.4 cm) tall, whereas American women are typically 5 feet, 4 inches tall (162.6 centimeters). There is, however, a wide range in heights, from the extremely tall to the extremely small, as is well known. The Guinness World Records (GWR) staff has a reputation for accurately recording extremes, and this is no different. They define this as “shortest” as opposed to being referred to as “smallest.” There are further categories for “the shortest person in the world.” Along with the shortest man (alive) and shortest woman in the world, the same categories also apply to non-moving individuals (living). Some of the shortest people are unable to walk or stand, according to Mark McKinley, head of Record Content Support at GWR, in an email. This means that their length, not height, is measured when they are lying down, as opposed to height. He emphasizes the need for distinct categories as a result of the measurement mismatch. We were unable to compare these two since measuring someone while they were lying down versus standing up would yield different results due to the pressure on the body.
