A harmonic function H on R n (n 2) is said to be universal (in the sense of Birkhoff) if its set of translates {x → H (a + x): a ∈ R n } is dense in the space of all harmonic functions on R n with the topology of local uniform convergence. The main theorem includes the result that such functions, H, can have any prescribed order and type. The growth result is compared with a similar known theorem for G.D. Birkhoff's universal holomorphic functions and contrasted with known growth theorems for MacLane-type universal harmonic and holomorphic functions.