Humans are getting taller. Over the last 200 years, humans worldwide have grown. This is particularly the case in Europe – and particularly in the Netherlands. Once one of the smaller nations on the continent, the Netherlands is now the tallest country in the world. Why?
Until around 1800, human height remained relatively the same. There was a disparity between people from different places, but people weren’t growing at anywhere near the rates we have seen in the last two centuries.
A number of factors have contributed to the rapid growth in Europe over the last 200 years. Many countries have seen average heights increase by nearly 15 centimeters (6 inches). In the Netherlands, the rise has been more substantial still. Since 1810, the average Dutch man has grown from 166 cm in 1810 to 184 cm.
“That’s too fast for it just to be a genetic effect,” Professor Louise Barrett of the University of Lethbridge, Canada, told the BBC.
Although there are genetic factors that contribute to height, there are a number of social and behavioral components as well. Much like health in general, the most important is diet and nutrition. Europe during and after the Industrial Revolution had an increased availability of food. In Holland, in particular, they consume a lot of dairy in their diet and calcium builds bone growth. Nobody drinks more milk than the Dutch and they are famous fans of cheese.
The industrialized ‘West’ also helped people combat other factors that limit growth. Illness, stress and heavy manual labor can all lead to shorter populations. This is particularly true of chronic and repetitive illnesses that often impede growth of survivors.
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The advanced healthcare systems in countries like the Netherlands are therefore huge reasons why European height soared. “[In the Netherlands] everything is geared towards producing high-quality babies that then don’t suffer any of the kinds of things that reduce height,” Barrett continued. “Every time you mount an immune response it costs you energy that otherwise you would have put into growth.”
The deaths of parents of young children have also been found to reduce height. Among very young children, this is the loss of nutrition, but among older children it suggests a correlation between profound stress and shorter heights. Interestingly, there is no such link when a child loses their father.
Though are still the tallest country in the world, children in the Netherlands are now marginally shorter than their parents. This could be because of a decline in the quality of diet and lower levels of public health.
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