Dutch height increase slows
Your support helps us to tell the story
From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.
At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.
The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.
Your support makes all the difference.The Dutch, thought to be the world's tallest people, seem to have stopped growing.
Average heights have increased scarcely or not at all since 2001, the Central Bureau for Statistics said Monday in a new study.
From the early 1980s to 2000, the height of the average Dutch man increased by more than 3 centimeters, to above 180 centimetres (just under 5 foot, 11 inches) in 2000. But since 2001, heights have been unchanged at 180.6 centimetres.
Dutch women gained a fraction of a centimeter to 167.7 centimetres (around 5'6"), the agency said.
Study author Frans Frenken speculated the Dutch may be reaching a natural peak.
"Previous gains are usually attributed to improvements in nutrition and health care," he said. "If they've reached their optimum level then there's not much more you can do."
International studies have found the Dutch to be the world's tallest people, usually ascribing that to wealth, nutrition, genetics, and the country's universal health care system.
John Komlos, of the University of Munich, who has studied height differences between the U.S. and the Netherlands, said "the results are not surprising."
"I've been saying for some time now that the Dutch are not going to increase in height much: they've probably reached their genetic limit," he said. "Nobody knows for certain, and I'm just guessing."
He says the most recent data show Dutch boys reaching adulthood are, on average, 184 centimetres. That's 5.6 centimetres taller than their American counterparts, a gap that has been increasing since World War II.
Frenken based his figures on his agency's annual poll of around 10,000 people, adjusting them slightly to reflect people's tendency to exaggerate their height.
An influx of immigrants has lowered the average Dutch height slightly. Male immigrants are 6 centimetres shorter, decreasing the national average by about 0.6 of a centimetre.
He said he couldn't predict whether children of immigrants would be as tall as other Dutch. "We just don't have the data," he said.
Join our commenting forum
Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies
Comments