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To study adult height in children that grew up with asthma before inhaled steroids became first-line therapy. Data from the Swedish Medical Birth Register (self-reported asthma) and the Hospital Discharge Register (first hospitalization for asthma) were used, to compare adult height for asthmatic and non-asthmatic pregnant women. The analysis was restricted to women in their first full-term pregnancy, born in Sweden between 1960–1974 and of Swedish citizenship. The mean height of all the women in the study population was 166.7 cm (SD = 8.8, n = 287,750) and of the women who reported asthma 166.5 cm (SD = 6.1, n = 13,059, p < 0.01). The mean height of women first hospitalized because of asthma at age 0–8 years was 165.5 cm (SD = 5.9 cm, n = 555, p < 0.01). Among the asthmatic women, there was no skew distribution of heights. Girls with moderate to severe childhood asthma who grew up before inhaled glucocorticosteroids became first-line therapy attained 0.7–1.2 cm lower adult height. The differences in height, while of statistical relevance, are not clinically relevant. Copyright © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.