Abstract
Being taller is associated with enhanced longevity, and higher education and earnings. We reanalysed 1472 population-based studies, with measurement of height on more than 18.6 million participants to estimate mean height for people born between 1896 and 1996 in 200 countries. The largest gain in adult height over the past century has occurred in South Korean women and Iranian men, who became 20.2 cm (95% credible interval 17.5-22.7) and 16.5 cm (13.3-19.7) taller, respectively. In contrast, there was little change in adult height in some sub-Saharan African countries and in South Asia over the century of analysis. The tallest people over these 100 years are men born in the Netherlands in the last quarter of 20th century, whose average heights surpassed 182.5 cm, and the shortest were women born in Guatemala in 1896 (140.3 cm; 135.8-144.8). The height differential between the tallest and shortest populations was 19-20 cm a century ago, and has remained the same for women and increased for men a century later despite substantial changes in the ranking of countries.
Highlights
Being taller is associated with enhanced longevity, lower risk of adverse pregnancy outcomes and cardiovascular and respiratory diseases, and higher risk of some cancers (Paajanen et al, 2010; Emerging Risk Factors Collaboration, 2012; Green et al, 2011; Nelson et al, 2015; Batty et al, 2010; World Cancer Research Fund / American Institute for Cancer Research, 2007; 2010; 2011; 2012; 2014a; 2014b; Nuesch et al, 2015; Davies et al, 2015; Zhang et al, 2015; Kozuki et al, 2015; Black et al, 2008)
We pooled worldwide population-based data to estimate height in adulthood for men and women born over a whole century throughout the world
Women were taller than 158 cm in Norway, Iceland, the USA and American Samoa
Summary
Foetal growth (itself related to maternal size, nutrition and environmental exposures), and nutrition and infections during childhood and adolescence are important determinants of height during adulthood (Cole, 2000; Silventoinen et al, 2000; Dubois et al, 2012; Haeffner et al, 2002; Sørensen et al, 1999; Victora et al, 2008; Eveleth and Tanner, 1990; Tanner, 1962; Tanner, 1992; Bogin, 2013). Information on height, and its trends, can help understand the health impacts of childhood and adolescent nutrition and environment, and of their social, economic, and political determinants, on both non-communicable diseases (NCDs) and on neonatal health and survival in the generation (Cole, 2000; Tanner, 1992; Tanner, 1987). We pooled worldwide population-based data to estimate height in adulthood for men and women born over a whole century throughout the world
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