How many 7 footers are there in the world?

[tgan3]

There doesnt seem to be any information on this kind of thing on the web. Anyone knows?

[QuebecBaller]

too many

[JtotheIzzo]

The best example I could find was from Navy enlistees in Brazil (a very good test country as it is very multi-racial).


104691 records of enlisted men we detected 20 with heights less than 140 cm and 47 measuring over 210 cm

http://www.scielo.br/scielo.php?pid=S0102-311X1997000300023&script=sci_arttext

210cm = 7 feet

47/104691 = 0.045% (this number seems high though)

But seeing how Brazilians are likely taller than the vast majority of Asian (who roughly comprise half the world's population) it might be a good idea to half that number again for a global view.

I have two friends who are 7 footers. One was a high school teammate who never went to play ball in college (not much love for the game) and the other is a guy I play with now who played at 2 Division I schools. Not sure how much he likes ball either. The tallest guy on my college team was 6'9".

I think the true number is quite low, but I think the 6'6" to 6'9" ranks have swelled considerably in the last decade and being a measly 6'5" is nothing special, but at the same time I also feel it is the ceiling for being 'of normal height'.

[Rake2204]

I don't have a worldwide number, but here is a USA estimate, from a real solid Sports Illustrated article from last last year:


An actual accounting of 7-footers, domestic or global, does not exist in any reliable form. National surveys by the Center for Disease Control list no head count or percentile at that height. (Only 5% of adult American males are 6'3" or taller.) "In terms of the growth spectrum, 7 feet is simply extreme," explains endocrinologist Shlomo Melmed, dean of the medical faculty at L.A.'s Cedars-Sinai Medical Center. The term 7-footer is itself a kind of outer limit, a far-off threshold beyond which precise measurement seems superfluous. A 6'4" guard isn't a 6-footer, after all. The curve shaped by the CDC's available statistics, however, does allow one to estimate the number of American men between the ages of 20 and 40 who are 7 feet or taller: fewer than 70 in all. Which indicates, by further extrapolation, that while the probability of, say, an American between 6'6" and 6'8" being an NBA player today stands at a mere 0.07%, it's a staggering 17% for someone 7 feet or taller.

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/vault/article/magazine/MAG1187806/index.htm

[Skywalker]

210cm = 7 feet



210 centimeters = 82.6771654 inches

so about 6'10 2/3"


84 inches = 213.36 centimeters