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Tall men may want to get married earlier, but their marriages won't go the distance like men with a shorter stature, a new study has claimed.

It found the rate of divorce among short men is significantly less than among average and tall men.

They were also more likely to marry much younger women, and make more money than their spouse.

The world's tallest man Sultan Kosen, standing at 2.51m (8ft 3in), married 1.73m (5ft 8in) Merve Dibo in his hometown in Mardin, Turkey. New research found the rate of divorce among short men is significantly less than among average and tall men.

'This further confirms an existence of height-based status exchange in which short men compensate for their lower physical status with higher proportional earnings, while tall men appear more likely to use their status to attract women with higher relative earnings,' said authors Abigail Weitzman and Dalton Conley of New York University.

The researchers looked at data from the Panel Study of Income Dynamics, which has been conducting a survey of American families since 1968. 

'Studies of online dating suggest that physical attraction is a key factor in early relationship formation, but say little about the role of attractiveness in longer-term relationships,' the researchers say.

Previous researcher has shown that, on average, tall men rise above their shorter colleagues in the workplace.

Around 90pc of high-power business CEOs above average height, but studies have also shown that taller men earn more. 

The latest study

'Drawing on two different cohorts from the Panel Study of Income Dynamics, the authors show that short, average, and tall men's spouses are qualitatively different from one another

'Short men marry and divorce at lower rates than others and both men's height relative to other men and their height relative to their spouse are related to the within-couple distribution of household labor and earnings

'These findings depict an enduring height hierarchy among men on in the spousal marriage market.

'Further, they indicate that at least one physical characteristic commonly associated with physical attraction influences the formation, functioning, and stability of longer-term relationships. 

The rate of divorce among short men is significantly less than among average and tall men, researchers say.

They also found tall men more likely to do the housework. 

'At every inch, the predicted proportion of combined housework is lower among men who are shorter than their spouse than among men who are taller, the researchers say. 

'Moreover, the predicted proportion of head-performed housework is between 25% and 30% greater among the tallest heads than among the shortest.'

The differences in how people choose each other are substantial, the team say. 

Short men are 269% more likely to marry someone of the same height than a man of average height, and 1,450% more likely to marry someone taller. 

Tall men are unlikely to to partner with someone who's their own height, let alone someone taller.

Researcher believe short men tend to use money to make up for their lack of stature.

Short men also earn more than their partner, who tends to be less educated.

'This further confirms an existence of height-based status exchange in which short men compensate for their lower physical status with higher proportional earnings, while tall men appear more likely to use their status to attract women with higher relative earnings,' the paper concludes.