Abstract: The present study includes the 24 cephalo-facial measurements and 15 indexes of 69 families from a high- altitude population of Gansu province, northwest China. The correlation coefficients vary considerably from one kind of parent-offspring combinations to another, from one characteristics to another. It seems that the correlations are rather stronger between mother and son and between mother and daughter in breadth characteristics, between father and son and father and daughter in height characteristics; Sons are closer to their mother and father in head shape, daughters to their father in, head size; Sons and daughters are closer to their mother than to their father in facial shape.

Key words: Han nationality; Parent-offspring correlations; Cephalo-facial characteristics