Are We Taller Because We Are Richer?

People get taller as their nations become richer and healthier, a new study suggests.

12:09 01 August 2016

A new research has showed that the average British person is more than 4 inches taller than a generation 100 years ago. It suggests that humans get taller as nations become richer and quality of life improves. This, according to the researchers, explains why all Western countries have seen massive increases in height since the 19th century. 

 

Based on the Imperial College data, Dutch men top the global height table, standing on average just under 6 ft. Brits, on the other hand, came in at number 31. East Timor men are at the bottom of the league, averaging 5ft 2 inches tall.

 

Gert Stulp, an evolutionary psychologist from the University of Groningen in the Netherlands, said: ‘The Netherlands has an excellent social welfare system and there is a very low level of inequality across the population.

 

‘Everyone is fed well, childhood nutrition is very good and the social system is very equal, which means less poverty.’

 

He added: ‘We certainly consume an awful lot of dairy products and they do increase your height,’ 

 

‘If you are fed very well and have very little exposure to infectious diseases then you are able to grow tall and be generally healthy.’

 

However, Dr Giles Yeo, a geneticist at Cambridge University’s MRC Metabolic Diseases Unit, said that the towering height of Dutch men can be attributed to genetics.

 

‘If the question is why as a species are we getting taller, that’s due to environmental factors such as diet. Our genes have not changed from one generation to the next.

 

‘If the question is why are the Dutch the tallest, that’s genetic.

 

‘Broadly speaking, a Dutch man is still more likely to partner a Dutch woman and so the variation in the gene pool is relatively small compared to some other countries.’