Most parents envision the future of their children: what school they'll go to, what interests they'll be into, the people they'll meet, and even the small things, from what they'll wear on their 7th birthday to how big or small, tall or short they'll be. While the aforementioned are mostly variables that depend on the parents' decisions, height is another story. It is proven by science that genetics influence height the most, which implies there's not much parents can do, but it also means it's possible to predict or estimate.
Here's a 1970 formula from the New York Times reported by the Daily Mail to compute your kid's possible, attainable height: For boys, add the height of both parents plus 5 inches or 13 centimeters and then divide the sum by two. For girls, add the height of both parents minus 5 inches or 13 centimeters and then divide the sum by two.
The answer will be the daughter or son's height but is of course, nowhere definitive of what will be the actual outcome. That is still better than expecting a Michael Jackson out of a 3-year old son when both parents are just within five feet and five inches.
According to a Scientific American article in 2006, about 60 to 80 percent of a person's height is determined by genetics while the remaining 20 to 40 percent is affected by climate, diet, lifestyle and other factors. From a study in 2014 reported by the Science Nordic, 697 small genome variations determine a person's height. The study examined 250,000 people and found out that with a single genetic variation, bones grow to a given length while with more than one genetic variation, bones grow one millimeter longer than average.
A 2000 study cited by the Daily Mail evaluated 8,798 Finnish twins and found out that in men, height is 78% genetics while in women, it is 75%. Furthermore, it sourced from The New York Times that some children from the same parents don't end up with the same height. Also, research shows that younger children tend to be shorter than their older siblings.
