The Change in Height Around the World Over the Last 100 Years

Edit Post

I honestly doubt me or even my grandchildren will see a time where 195 cm is the average in any country in the world.

Edit Post

Quote from: IwannaBeTaller on March 17, 2018, 11:09:44 PMI honestly doubt me or even my grandchildren will see a time where 195 cm is the average in any country in the world.

That's the max maximum I can see. A country (or people) could have an average height of around 187cm, and 195cm could be the upper average. Anything above that and you start having problems with biomechanics.

Anyway, like you said, if this ever happens, it'll be long down the road. If Finland has plateaued their height, it's hard to imagine any country quickly getting to that average.

Edit Post

Not entirely related to the thread, but I wanted to post this somewhere.

Edit Post

Quote from: myloginacct on March 18, 2018, 09:05:05 PMNot entirely related to the thread, but I wanted to post this somewhere.

What a strange idea, since height has no impact when it comes to composing music (especially instrumental). Perhaps the writer of this article has a case of height neurosis too!

Edit Post

Quote from: Android on March 18, 2018, 11:29:00 PMWhat a strange idea, since height has no impact when it comes to composing music (especially instrumental). Perhaps the writer of this article has a case of height neurosis too!

What is weird is that it got me thinking why there has been such an increase in height around the world over the last 100 years. Better nutrition over the generations is a huge factor, but why did it not seem to affect aristocracy for so long? Aristocratic families surely would have had good nutrition over their generations.

It could be that it's just a very slow process, but I don't remember men being significantly shorter than 5'1~5'4 (like Grieg and Mozart) thousands of years ago.

Nevermind. I just googled it.

https://www.livestrong.com/article/542877-the-average-height-of-humans-over-time/

https://ourworldindata.org/human-height

It seems height has gone up and down multiple times throughout the ages. Nutrition also seems to be a major factor, despite modern studies parroting it is mostly genetics. I don't even know anything anymore.

QuoteOver the last two millennia, human height, based off of skeletal remains, has stayed fairly steady, oscillating around 170cm [in Europe]. With the onset of modernity, we see a massive spike in heights in the developed world. It is worth noting that using skeletal remains is subject to measurement error with respect to the estimated height and time period.

Edit Post

The most massive difference between modernity and older ages really is the better healthcare. So I think the key has to lie in that. Kids and youth who barely get any sick and get good nutrition will reach their maximum (genetic) height potential, which seems to be what happened in developed countries like Japan and Finland.

QuoteHeight did not begin to increase again until the 18th and 19th centuries, according to Steckel. The reasons for this remain unclear, but it is likely that lower temperatures in Europe between the 1300s and the 1800s, combined with higher levels of trade and movement between places, held height down during this period. European emigrants to North America enjoyed a low population density, few disease outbreaks and an increased income and by the 1830s their descendants had reached a peak in terms of height. However, the average height of Americans dropped about 2 inches in the following 50 years, as increased transportation and migration facilitated the spread of disease like whopping cough, scarlet fever and cholera. Heights would not increase again until the end of the 19th century, when government implemented water purification and introduced measures to deal with waste and sewage.

Edit Post

That's interesting. It seems that when people get richer and live better lives they tend to get taller as a whole. As long as a person is born in a first world country height doesn't seems to be that much attributed to environmental factors. Or at least these factors are just facilitating reaching his full height potential. Countries like the Netherlands are getting steadily richer in the last half-century and their height is increasing too.



Of course there are exceptions in nations like Montenegro and the Western Balkans as a whole but their genetic predisposition seems to be pretty strong due to the fact that big portion of the population have the so called Y haplogroup and even despite unfavourable environment factors they still tend to be tall.



 

Edit Post

Quote from: ivan on March 19, 2018, 01:19:47 AMThat's interesting. It seems that when people get richer and live better lives they tend to get taller as a whole. As long as a person is born in a first world country height doesn't seems to be that much attributed to environmental factors. Or at least these factors are just facilitating reaching his full height potential. Countries like the Netherlands are getting steadily richer in the last half-century and their height is increasing too.



Of course there are exceptions in nations like Montenegro and the Western Balkans as a whole but their genetic predisposition seems to be pretty strong due to the fact that big portion of the population have the so called Y haplogroup and even despite unfavourable environment factors they still tend to be tall.

Yes, that's the trend that happened in all first-world nations. Modernity (and its associated wealth and living standards) brought that massive spike in height increase, as per my last figure.

Basically, first-world nations give most of the population the chance to reach their genetic potential with regards to height.

Edit Post

Then the well-fed, healthy, taller nationals marry one another and keep that cycle going with their children, as your height depends on your parents' heights. Thankfully, there seems to be a plateau based on genetics, and people won't keep getting taller forever.

Edit Post

Yes, I agree with that.