A century of trends in adult human height

James Bentham , Mariachiara Di Cesare , Stevens Gretchen A , James Bentham , Mariachiara Di Cesare , Stevens Gretchen A , Bin Zhou , Bixby Honor , Cowan Melanie , Fortunato Léa , Hajifathalian Kaveh , Yuan Lu , Riley Leanne M , Kontis Vasilis , Paciorek Christopher J , Ezzati Majid , Abdeen Ziad A , H ABDUL , Abu-Rmeileh Niveen M , Benjamín Acosta-Cázares , Adams Robert , Aekplakorn Wichai , Aguilar-Salinas Carlos A , Agyemang Charles , Alireza Ahmadvand , Wolfgang Ahrens , Al-Hazzaa Hazzaa M , Al-Othman Amani Rashed , Raddadi Rajaa Al , Ali Mohamed M , Alkerwi Ala'A , Alvarez-Pedrerol Mar , Aly Eman , Philippe Amouyel , A.T.P. Brink Antoinette , Andersen Lars Bo , Anderssen Sigmund A , Anjana Ranjit Mohan , Aounallah-Skhiri Hajer , Ariansen Inger , Aris Tahir , Nimmathota Arlappa , Arveiler Dominique , Assah Felix K , Avdicová Mária , Azizi Fereidoun , Bontha V. Babu , Suhad Bahijri , Nagalla Balakrishna , Bandosz Piotr , Banegas José R , Barbagallo Carlo M , Barceló Alberto , Amina Barkat , Mauro Virgílio Gomes de Barros , Bata Iqbal , Anwar Batieha , Batista Rosangela L , Baur Louise A , Beaglehole Robert , Habiba Ben Romdhane , Mikhail Benet Rodríguez , Bennett James E , Antonio Bernabé-Ortíz , Gailutė Bernotienė , Bettiol Heloisa , Bhagyalaxmi Aroor , Bharadwaj Sumit , Bhargava Santosh K , B Jildeh Zaid , Zulfiqar A Bhutta , Hongsheng Bi , Yufang Bi , Bjerregaard Peter , Bjertness Espen , Bjertness Marius B , Björkelund Cecilia , Blokstra Anneke , Bo Simona , B.R. Martin , Boddy Lynne M , Boehm Bernhard O , Boeing Heiner , Boissonnet Carlos P , Vanina Bongard , Pascal Bovet , Braeckman Lutgart , Bragt Marjolijn Ce , Brajkovich Imperia , Branca Francesco , Breckenkamp Juergen , Hermann Brenner , Lizzy M. Brewster , Brian Garry R , Bruno Graziella , Bueno-de-Mesquita Hb , Anna Bugge , Con Burns , León Antonio Cabrera De , C A Joseph , Cama Tilema , Cameron Christine , José Camolas
2016 eLife 1,511 citations

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.

Keywords

BiologyEvolutionary biology

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Year
2016
Type
article
Volume
5
Citations
1511
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James Bentham, Mariachiara Di Cesare, Stevens Gretchen A et al. (2016). A century of trends in adult human height. eLife , 5 . https://doi.org/10.7554/elife.13410

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DOI
10.7554/elife.13410