Why are bathtubs in the US undersized for adults?

In America, generally baths are for kids. Adults normally shower.

I don't know why this is. I love baths, but I'm 6'3 and don't fit in any of them, so no bath for me.

One of the apartments I lived in was designed for folks with physical disabilities (despite me lacking said disabilities, the leasing office insisted I was totally eligible to move into it, so I did). Among the myriad quirks with it (wider doors, slightly-lower countertops) was the bathtub: twice as wide as usual, with lots of handles.

I miss that bathtub. Even a stereotypically-American obese tub of lard like myself could fit comfortably in it.

I totally solved the bathtub size issue. The shape was wrong and Japanese had it right. I am 72 kg and 177cm. Very economical too, with 20 liters I can totally submerge. https://photos.app.goo.gl/HDwDf1s4PD3KoW3c8

In general:

The typical 60” bathtub is 60” because 60” is a common width for bathrooms.

60” is common because a reasonable size of door can swing past a reasonable size of sink cabinet when door jambs are reasonably sized.

Sure bathrooms could be larger, and on-suite bathrooms often are when the bedroom is large.

But mostly, larger tubs are not something typical homebuyers will pay premium for. Bathrooms are small for the same reasons garages are small and second and third bedrooms are small…they are unprofitable square footage.

Why is my showerhead only like 5 feet up the wall?

Guess: The "standard" size was spec'ed a century or so ago, when people were generally smaller, and plentiful warm or hot water (the bigger the tub, the more you need) was generally far less available. And houses & bathrooms were generally smaller, too.

A newish trend is "soaking tubs", which are deeper than standard. Look into it if you're remodeling.

Maybe it's the other way around

What is great is that water births have gained in popularity in the US.

What is embarrassingly sad is many hospitals/birth centers just have a whirlpool-style tub which is not large enough for a woman in labor to maneuver to a (as most as it can be) comfortable position.

The best we encountered so far was just a very large basin, perhaps four feet by three feet. Everything else had weird bumps and such jutting into the water that is obviously designed to reduce water usage for a whirlpool bath.

The best would be the dedicated large round tubs that are just small pools: then there is no difficulty getting to the position you need.

Japanese tubs are bigger partly because they are meant to have more than one person.

But in addition they are typically unit bathrooms - like prefab that are installed in a unit in like a day or two. This makes them way cheaper than USA bathrooms. In USA you need contractor, carpenter, plumber, electrician all at diff times and that makes the bathroom really expensive to install.

I assume that if bathrooms were cheaper in the USA we would have bigger/nicer ones. That could be with a bigger bath.

What do you mean with undersized?

My standard European bathtub is roughly 140x52 cm on the inside.

That is too short. So either the knees, or the upper body stick out of the water.

Not sure about the width though. What is the average width of an American? Being wider than half a meter seems unusual.

When I was a teenager I dreamed of having a huge bathtub. Now I own a tiny apartment (EU) with a bathroom that is too small for even a tiny bathtub. Ironically my working-class parents' apartment has a much bigger shower.

Single Bathroom dimensions are typically standard in housing.

Unless you're not in the typical single-family home design, which is basically the GI Bill '40s Military Base housing DNA.

And because of this - billions of tubs could be manufactured at standard rates and allow the US to expand after WWII with a standard of hygiene as a part of our culture as we 1st-worlded.

So now, large tubs are a matter of being a spender and you paying top dollar for anything non-standard in the US.

WHen I was a kid, we had a house in tahoe and it had a two huge tubs - an internal hot-tub that was a giant 6' diameter half wine-stave-style tub, and a large 5'x5' shower/tub that had two shower heads.

It was built by an awesome hippy guy in Tahoe. Ever since then, I love nice tubs.

Americans are oversized for tubs. Americans are majority very fat.