Ron Weasley is known to all fans of Harry Potter, and even those who just started their journey with the young wizard are quickly getting acquainted with the famous redhead.
Harry Potter’s best friend gets a lot of attention in the books and movies. We know his most recognizable traits, but did J.K. Rowling ever tell us how tall Ron Weasley is?
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How Tall is Ron Weasley in the Books?
Nobody knows for sure how tall is Ron Weasley. But given the information across the books, we can judge that Ron Weasley was 5‘0“ tall when we meet him in the first book. At the end of the last book Ron Weasley is 6‘2“ tall. In the movie Ron is 5‘8“ tall.
Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone
When we look at Ron for the first time in the first book, chapter six, he is described as “thin, tall, and gangling.”
That’s not giving us any indication as to how tall Ron was as an 11-year-old boy but considering that an average height for a boy his age is about 4’9″, we can assume he was above average. We could place him around 5’0″.
Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets
There was no mention of the height of the 12-year-old Ron in the second book. We can still assume he was taller than Harry, and considering boys his age grow quite a lot (around 2.5 inches over the year), we can say that during his second year at Hogwarts, Ron was about 5’2″ tall.
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban
In the third book, the only mention of Ron’s height was when Harry looked at Weasley’s picture in Daily Prophet, describing Ron as “tall and gangling.”
Again we can only assume that Ron is still taller than Harry, who had grown a few inches over the previous year.
Following the growth pattern for boys reaching puberty, we can say that 13-year-old Ron was roughly 5’5″ tall.
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire
Ron, as a 14-year-old, was still portrayed as a tall wizard. Book number four mentions that he is taller than Harry and Hermione and most of the school population.
Ron, the tallest of the three, stood on tiptoe to see over the heads in front of them and read the sign aloud to the other two.
Ron was also taller than three of his older brothers:
Charlie was built like the twins, shorter and stockier than Percy and Ron, who were both long and lanky
Ron was most likely taller than the average teenager’s height. Considering the average height for teenage girls up to 17 years old is 5’1″ – 5’3″ and teenage boys 5’3″ – 5’7″, we can say that Ron at 14 was at least 5’8″ tall.
Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix
Ron as a 15-year-old teenager, was taller than ever.
When Harry sees him again after a time apart, he notices just how tall Ron is.
“He seems to have grown several more inches during their month apart, making him taller and more gangly looking than ever.”
Considering he was still a teenager and that we are looking at him from Harry’s perspective (who was at that point rather short himself), we can assume Ron was around 5’9″ or just reaching 6’0″ at that time.
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
There are two mentions of Ron’s height in the sixth book. One comes directly from Ron himself after Hermione mentioned how much Harry had grown over the summer.
“I’m tall”, said Ron inconsequentially.
Another mention was after the Quidditch tryouts when Ron was really proud of himself.
Ron looked extremely pleased with himself and even taller than usual as he grinned at the team and at Hermione.
There is no mention of him growing anymore throughout the book, but we can assume he did grow (which would be perfectly normal for a young man his age), at least a little, and at the beginning of the sixth year of school, Ron was around 6’1″ tall.
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows
We could safely assume that Ron was still the tallest of the Golden Trio. The scene with Polyjuice Potion in chapter four indicates that although Harry had previously grown a lot during his years at Hogwarts, he is still shorter than Ron.
Hermione and Mundungus were shooting upward; Ron, Fred, and George were shrinking; their hair was darkening, Hermione’s and Fleur’s appearing to shoot backward into their skulls.
Another Polyjuice scene when Harry turns into Runcorn gives us another look at Ron’s height. In the book, we can read:
Once the painful transformation was complete he was more than six feet tall and, from what he could tell from his-well muscled arms, powerfully built.
and
“Blimey, that’s scary,” said Ron, looking up at Harry, who now towered over him.
Although we don’t know how much “more than six feet” is, we can assume that Ron was around 6’2″ tall at that time and didn’t grow anymore since the previous year.
Is Ron Taller Than Harry in the Books?
Ron is taller than Harry in all the books.
Harry experienced many growth spurts throughout the book series and is rather tall himself, but Ron is still taller, and Rowling mentioned it several times.
How Tall is Ron Weasely in Real Life?
Rupert Grint, the actor playing Ron Weasley in Harry Potter movies, was 4’10” as an 11-year-old kid at the beginning of the series.
When casting a child actor in a movie series based on books, nobody can foresee how the child will develop and if they will resemble a book character in all the details.
Unfortunately for the biggest fans, the actor didn’t grow as tall as his book character, and Ron Weasley is only 5’8″ in real life.
Conclusion
From the first time we meet Ron Weasley, as an 11-year-old boy, to the last chapter of the book, he is described as a very tall wizard. Alongside his brothers Percy and Bill and their father, Arthur, they are the tallest in the Weasley clan.
Even though the precise height of the character is not disclosed in any of the books, our imagination can easily help us see Ron as a 6’0″ – 6’2″ tall wizard.