After the Dutch have been getting taller for years, the average height has decreased for a while. Women born in 2001 are 1.4 cm shorter than the 1980 generation, according to the Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS). In men, the difference is 1 cm. The average height of women born in 2001 is 169.3 cm, while that of men is 182.9 cm.
Until 1980, there was always a simple average height. The average for men born in 1930 was 175.6 cm. In 1980, 8.3 cm was added. The women grew from 165.4 cm to 170.7 cm in that period.
This downturn is partly due to the migration of shorter people on average. But average growth has also remained stagnant, according to CBS, among people whose parents or all grandparents were born in the Netherlands.
The tallest people in the world
Gert Stolpe, who studies body height and works at the University of Groningen, says the same is happening in other countries. “In the US, for example, growth is stabilizing and women are shrinking slightly,” he says. “It may be because people are starting to eat less: less variety, more fatty. This could also play a role here in the Netherlands.” De Volkskrant.
The Dutch do not have to give up the title of “the tallest person in the world.” Last year, more than one in five young men were at least 190cm tall and 7 per cent were taller than 195cm. Among women, approximately one in ten reached at least 180 cm. Among women in their 30s, less than 2 percent have grown to this height.
12 per cent of young people are shorter than 175 cm. In the 1950s, it was still 42 percent.
Regional differences are remarkably large, CBS reports. For example, a young Friesian was about 3 to 3.5 cm taller than a young Limburger for years.
