The tallest nation in the world is getting shorter

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Although height has increased over the past 100 years, the study found that Dutch men born in 2001 were 1 cm shorter than their 1980 counterparts. For women, the difference was more pronounced with a difference of 1 , 4 cm.

The 1980 generation may have been the tallest of all time, enjoying a huge increase in height.

Dutch men born in 1980 were on average 183.9 cm tall and 8.3 cm taller than those born in 1930. Women born in 1980 were also significantly taller at 170.7 cm, compared to 165.4 cm for those born in 1980. born in 1930.

The study by Statistics Netherlands, the municipal health service GGD and the National Institute of Public Health, RIVM, analyzed 719,000 Dutch-born people aged 19 to 60 who declared their height and used the average height at 19 as a reference.

Part of the reason for the decrease in size is the increase in immigration levels of shorter population groups, the researchers said. However, growth also slowed for people whose parents were both born in the Netherlands and for those whose four grandparents were all born in the Netherlands.

Dutch men with no family history of migration showed no increase in height, while Dutch women without any migration in their family decreased.

However, the Dutch have stood head and shoulders above the rest of the world for their increase in height over the past 70 years, with the streets of the Netherlands showing a very different picture in 2020 compared to the early years. 1950, according to researchers.

While about 3% of the 1930-34 cohort were at least 190 cm tall, in 2020 more than 20% are at least 190 cm, of which 7% are over 195 cm. In the 1950s, 42% of young men were less than 175cm tall, but in 2020 that figure is only 12%.

For the same generation of women, less than 2% of the 1930-34 cohort reached a height of 180 cm. Among those born in 1980, however, almost 10% are at least 180 cm tall.

The image is not uniform across the Netherlands, with large differences between the north and south of the country. Those of Limburg are the smallest, while the natives of Friesland are between 3 and 3.5 cm taller.

The researchers pointed out that the Dutch had not lost their title as the tallest person in the world, with those born around the turn of the millennium still claiming that status. They felt that the generation of the late 1950s was the first to claim this fame.

For years, researchers have tried to find out why the Dutch are so tall – studies suggest it could be due to natural selection and taller people having more children, passing on their tall genes.
This year’s finding is not the first to suggest that growth is decreasing or height decreases, with previous studies suggesting that this could be due to an increased focus on plant-based diets and the stabilization of ” environmental factors promoting growth “.

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