The researchers have found that men who are over 6ft tall are up to 50% more likely to be married or living with a long-term girlfriend than men below 5ft 5in.

Height, they found, also played a factor in a man’s earnings potential, pointing out that managers and professionals tend to be an inch taller on average than blue-collar workers. Even within social classes, taller people are more likely to be successful.

The study, by the National Institute for Statistics and Economic Studies in Paris, offers a guide to a man’s prospects in life in accordance with his physical stature.

In the love stakes, Nicolas Herpin, author of the research,said: “Being short is a handicap when it comes to finding a mate.”

The research, which was based on a representative sample of more than 2,000 men, will be published this week in the journal Economics and Human Biology: it classifies short men as those below 5ft 5in and tall men as those above 5ft 10in.

It found that 60% of short men aged 30-39 are married or in a permanent relationship, compared with 74% of tall men. The gap in conjugal success was 12 points for those men aged 40-49 and 14 points for 50 to 59-year-olds.

However, Herpin believes that to compensate for their lack of height, short men are inclined to work harder to prove themselves to the opposite sex.

“Having remained single longer means they have acquired greater maturity when forming a binding relationship,” says the study. “They have shown they are hard workers and therefore look like reliable providers; in sum, they are in a position to compensate for their physical handicap.”

Sometimes the negative sides of shortness can be an advantage. The Hollywood actor Danny DeVito has frequently played irritating little men, and in both the 1988 film Twins and Junior in 1994, he appeared beside the giant Arnold Schwarzenegger for added comic effect.

Herpin found that, on average, height is likely to prove a disadvantage to a short man’s career prospects. “With identical educational attainment levels, tall men have better careers than short men as they are given greater supervisory responsibilities,” says the study. “Being tall enables one to be heard and obeyed. And height is used as a hiring or promotion criterion.”

Height also affects social mobility. Herpin found that, overall, 20.5% of blue-collar workers’ sons were short, but only 16.6% of working-class sons who rose to become managers were small men.

Furthermore, the short sons of blue-collar workers are more likely to follow the same line of employment as their fathers, while taller sons have a greater chance of moving up the social ladder.

A separate study from Finland, published earlier this year, claimed that baby boys who were taller than average by their first birthday earned more than their shorter counterparts 50 years later.

John Bercow, the Conservative MP for Buckingham, who is 5ft 6in, claimed his height had never worried him.

“It may be that there is some truth in the old claim that Conservative selection committees tend to like classic-looking men — tall, dark and handsome,” said Bercow. “And maybe that counted against me in a few selections, but I think it was probably more because of my views. I don’t feel it has held me back professionally.”

Blake Dowie, 21, a 5ft 5in history undergraduate from Taunton, Somerset, said: “I think it gets back to social Darwinism and survival of the fittest and the person who is tallest and strongest gets the women and the power.

“You do notice that people like managing directors are usually taller. I used to work at Butlins and you would see the short people doing all the menial jobs like cleaning the streets and bins.

“But I have never had a problem with girlfriends, and I don’t think it will hold me back in work. My older brother is a director at a bank and is my height.”

In America, some short men have resorted to drastic measures to increase their height — and, they hope, their status. Some have paid as much as £50,000 to have their limbs artificially lengthened by up to 4in.

The process involves metal pins being fitted into a patient’s legs and gradually tightened over the course of several weeks to pull the bones apart.

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