Is Our Obsession With Tall Men Totally Delusional?

I think it’s fair to say that most women, myself included, have a weakness for tall men—with a very loud subset refusing to date men under 6ft. But is this a reasonable romantic preference, or are we delusional? Well, let’s break down the (frankly quite harrowing) facts of the case.

Trigger warning. Per CDC data, the average American man is 5’9.1”. Only 14.5% of men clear 6ft. And that’s before you factor in other essentials, such as: Is he single? Is he on meth? Does he have a job? Does he act super weird around my friends? Is his porn addiction giving him ED? Look, I can’t do math, but I’m pretty sure we’re at less than zero percent of men at this point.

6’3”+: 1.5%
6’2”+: 3.9%
6’1”+: 7.9%
6’0”+: 14.5%
5’11”+: 25.4%
5’10”+: 42.9%
5’9”+: 61.8%

Translation: Most men are 5’9’’ and below. And yet, Bumble data found only 15% of women are open to dating a man who is 5’8”, with 60% setting their height filter to 6ft or taller. Now, I’m not saying this to terrify everyone into being knocked-up by the next 5’7” man who makes eye contact with you. But it does seem like we might need a wakeup call?

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“Six feet, six figures” has become internet shorthand for the bare minimum of an “ideal” male partner. Well, more bad news: by most estimates, only about 2.5% of men clear both bars. I find this stat genuinely disturbing (especially given that, in 2026, making $100k a year in any major city basically means you’re broke). Not only is this dating pool teeny tiny—more of a thimble, really—but everybody’s fishing in it.

I, too, am a documented victim of what I call Tall Man Derangement Syndrome. I have, more than once, become a hopeful idiot in proximity to a tall man. You know the type: his entire personality is being 6’2’’, he spends the whole date talking about his “crazy” ex, and yet somehow you leave thinking he gets me.