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So marines are 8 ft tall and about 32mm , so if I wanted normal human civilians , which one of the scales would I be looking to get , 32/¹ , 72/¹ anyone had any experience with ?

Theoretically, around 1:56 scale. But it's not quite that simple, since GW's (and most other people's) wargaming minis use an exaggerated 'heroic' scale, which makes everyone bulkier than they would be at actual scale. So actual 1:56 scale humans (assuming you can find any) would look a little odd beside Marines.

The "heroic" proportions on GW's minis make measuring by height not very meaningful. Normal adult humans are 7.5-8 heads tall. GW's current sculpts are ~7 heads. Older sculpts like tactical marines and Cadians are ~6 heads. If you convert GW figures to have proper abdomens and legs they're a decent match for 1:48 scale. Especially since people with poor childhood nutrition (like much of the Imperium) tend to be pretty short.

If you google around you can often find pictures placing minis from different companies side by side for scale comparison and thus get an idea of how they fit.
in this picture here:

the women on the right is from Copplestone Castings darkest Africa Civilians Line:
https://www.copplestonecastings.co.uk/list.php?cat=5&sub=18&page=1

She was a bit smaller and slimmer than the GW stuff, but could fit in as young women. And Copplestones Adventurers should also be acceptable civilians.
https://www.copplestonecastings.co.uk/list.php?cat=2&sub=4&page=1

You might find this website useful.
Plastic soldier review. ...

http://www.plasticsoldierreview.com/

It tends to have some good scale shots for reference.

for true scale 1:50 see:
https://modelshop.co.uk/Shop/Model-Detail/1-50-Scale/Figures?orderby=1