A new study in collaboration with the World Health Organisation compares the evolution of body height by gender over a century, from 1914 to 2014. It confirms that Dutch men are still the tallest in the world at 183 cm (6ft), a status they have held for several decades. Latvian women overtook Scandinavian, Dutch and German and have become the world's tallest, at 170 cm (5ft 7in).
Here is the BBC article.
The nations with the tallest men in 2014 (1914 ranking in brackets):
It's interesting that the tallest men are found in countries with high percentages of Y-haplogroup I1 and I2, but not necessarily those with the highest WHG ancestry. I suppose that the reason why Finnish men aren't taller (despite 28% of I1) is because of their 6% of Mongoloid admixture. Likewise, the Swedes and Norwegians may have intermarried more with the Saami during the course of the 20th century, thus counteracting the growth brought by better nutrition. It would be interesting to see if there is a north-south gradient for height mirroring the percentage of Saami ancestry. It is to be expected since the Danes overtook them and lack a Saami population or Mongoloid admixture.
North Americans fell sharply in the ranking, but that is almost certainly due to to immigration from short stature countries, notably from Latin America, South Asia and East Asia. There is a good chance that Caucasian Americans grew as fast as Europeans, if not more.
The nations with the tallest women in 2014 (1914 ranking in brackets):
Baltic, Slavic and Germanic countries top the list, all countries with considerable ancestry from the Corded Ware culture.
Surprising how tall Tongan women are, and how tall they already were 100 years ago!
Also of interest, the highest growth spurts in 100 years among males was observed in Iran (+16cm), followed by most of Europe (except Scandinavia), East Asia and Latin America. Iranian men were among the shortest (181st out of 200) in 1914. They now rank 67th.
Korean, Japanese and Balto-Slavic women who grew much faster than average.
Korean and Taiwanese men and women are now the tallest in East Asia, well ahead of the Japanese and Chinese.
The map below shows the change in adult height between the 1896 and 1996.
Here is the BBC article.
The nations with the tallest men in 2014 (1914 ranking in brackets):
- Netherlands (12)
- Belgium (33)
- Estonia (4)
- Latvia (13)
- Denmark (9)
- Bosnia and Herzegovina (19)
- Croatia (22)
- Serbia (30)
- Iceland (6)
- Czech Republic (24)
- Germany (34)
- Slovenia (31)
- Norway (2)
- France (42)
- Sweden (1)
- Finland (25)
- Slovakia (20)
- Australia (15)
- Lithuania (16)
- Ireland (43)
It's interesting that the tallest men are found in countries with high percentages of Y-haplogroup I1 and I2, but not necessarily those with the highest WHG ancestry. I suppose that the reason why Finnish men aren't taller (despite 28% of I1) is because of their 6% of Mongoloid admixture. Likewise, the Swedes and Norwegians may have intermarried more with the Saami during the course of the 20th century, thus counteracting the growth brought by better nutrition. It would be interesting to see if there is a north-south gradient for height mirroring the percentage of Saami ancestry. It is to be expected since the Danes overtook them and lack a Saami population or Mongoloid admixture.
North Americans fell sharply in the ranking, but that is almost certainly due to to immigration from short stature countries, notably from Latin America, South Asia and East Asia. There is a good chance that Caucasian Americans grew as fast as Europeans, if not more.
The nations with the tallest women in 2014 (1914 ranking in brackets):
- Latvia (28)
- Netherlands (38)
- Estonia (16)
- Czech Republic (69)
- Serbia (93)
- Slovakia (26)
- Denmark (11)
- Lithuania (41)
- Belarus (42)
- Ukraine (43)
- Slovenia (76)
- Iceland (3)
- Finland (45)
- Germany (23)
- Australia (29)
- Bosnia and Herzegovina (46)
- Sweden (1)
- Croatia (135)
- Norway (2)
- Tonga (7)
Baltic, Slavic and Germanic countries top the list, all countries with considerable ancestry from the Corded Ware culture.
Surprising how tall Tongan women are, and how tall they already were 100 years ago!
Also of interest, the highest growth spurts in 100 years among males was observed in Iran (+16cm), followed by most of Europe (except Scandinavia), East Asia and Latin America. Iranian men were among the shortest (181st out of 200) in 1914. They now rank 67th.
Korean, Japanese and Balto-Slavic women who grew much faster than average.
Korean and Taiwanese men and women are now the tallest in East Asia, well ahead of the Japanese and Chinese.
The map below shows the change in adult height between the 1896 and 1996.