Dutch men and Latvian women confirmed as world's tallest

[Deleted]

Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-36888541

When it comes to height, Dutch men and Latvian women tower over all other nationalities, a new study confirms.
The average Dutchman is now 183cm (6ft) tall, while the average Latvian woman reaches 170cm (5ft 7in).
The research, published in the journal eLife, has tracked growth trends in 187 countries since 1914.

...

This contrasts for example with men and women in the US, where the height of the nation's people started to plateau in the 1960s and 1970s. Over the century, they have seen increases of just 6cm and 5cm (a couple of inches), respectively.

Indeed, Americans have tumbled down the rankings. Back in 1914, they had the third tallest men and fourth tallest women on the planet. Today they are in 37th and 42nd place.

The height charts are now utterly dominated by European countries, but the data would suggest that growth trends in general in the West have largely levelled out.

The smallest men on the planet are to be found in East Timor (160cm; 5ft 3in).

The world's smallest women are in Guatemala, a status they also held back in 1914. According to the survey data, a century ago the average Guatemalan 18-year-old female was 140cm (4ft 7in). Today she has still not quite reached 150cm (4ft 11in).

...

East Asia has seen some of the biggest increases. People in Japan, China and South Korea are much taller than they were 100 years ago.
"The parts of the world where people haven't got particularly taller over this 100 years of analysis are in South Asia (such as India, Pakistan and Bangladesh) and in sub-Saharan Africa. Here the increase in height is between 1-6cm in those regions," explained co-author James Bentham from Imperial College London.

...

Some of the variation in height across the globe can be explained by genetics, but the study's authors say our DNA cannot be the dominant factor.

Lead scientist Majid Ezzati, also from Imperial, told BBC News: "About a third of the explanation could be genes, but that doesn't explain the change over time. Genes don't change that fast and they don't vary that much across the world. So changes over time and variations across the world are largely environmental. That's at the whole population level versus for any individual whose genes clearly matter a lot." Good standards of healthcare, sanitation, and nutrition were the key drivers, he said. Also important is the mother's health and nutrition during pregnancy.

Other research has shown that height is correlated with both positive outcomes and a few negative ones. Tall people tend to have a longer life expectancy, with a reduced risk of heart disease. On the other hand, there is some evidence that they are at greater risk of certain cancers, such as colorectal, postmenopausal breast and ovarian cancers. "One hypothesis is that growth factors may promote mutated cells," said another Imperial co-author, Elio Riboli.

The nations with the tallest men in 2014 (1914 ranking in brackets):
Netherlands (12)
Belgium (33)
Estonia (4)
Latvia (13)
Denmark (9)
Bosnia and Herzegovina (19)
Croatia (22)
Serbia (30)
Iceland (6)
Czech republic (24)

The nations with the tallest women in 2014 (1914 ranking in brackets):
Latvia (28)
Netherlands (38)
Estonia (16)
Czech Republic (69)
Serbia (93)
Slovakia (26)
Denmark (11)
Lithuania (41)
Belarus (42)
Ukraine (43)

[Sunseeker]

Well, I guess if you like ultra-tall chicks/dudes?

[Jonnusthegreat]

This is actually really interesting.

[Radio]

2tall 4me

[Tennis]

The nations with the tallest men in 2014 (1914 ranking in brackets):
Netherlands (12)
Belgium (33)
Estonia (4)
Latvia (13)
Denmark (9)

Yet they produce almost no world class NBA players.

[Deleted]

[Blobfish]

Well being Tall doesnt lead Dutch Men to have the Biggest Penis size
The country with the biggest Penis size's goes to the :

Republic of the Congo in Africa

The Smallest Penis sizes go to North Korea...Those poor North Korean ladies

Penis Size Around the World

The global average is 5.5in – the size of the display on an iPhone 6 Plus.
The title of biggest penises in the world goes to the Democratic Republic of the Congo, where the average is 7.1in,
while North Korea comes bottom of the pile with an average penis size of 3.8in.
South America is comfortably the most well-hung continent, with an average of 6.36in.
Only 3 percent of men worldwide are dealing with 8in-plus and only 6 percent actually need extra large condoms.

Read more: http://metro.co.uk/2015/02/28/want-t...#ixzz4FTKTuDBM

[Kraenen]

The country with the biggest Penis size's goes to the :

Read more: http://metro.co.uk/2015/02/28/want-t...#ixzz4FTKTuDBM

Yeah, this was debunked. IIRC the data came from some guy trying to sell penis extenders, some fabrications, and some old pornographic magazines.

[AeneasBK]

I@m very surprisd the tallest are from Europe and not Africa .

[Deleted]

I@m very surprisd the tallest are from Europe and not Africa .

You shouldn't be. Even without having read the article, you should already have been aware that humans have been growing taller all the time since the discovery of agriculture. So, whoever has the most food and health will eventually outgrow everyone else and make babies that are also healthier and taller.

These environmental factors are very fast compared to genetics.

Also, a little known fact, is that there is more genetic diversity within human population groups than between them (making a mockery of the concept of "race"), especially on the African continent, which has the most diversity of all. This makes sense since that's the source of human species and is a landmass that can fit of all of US, Europe ex. Russia, Japan, India, China and still have room to spare.

[Damajin]

Eh, the hottest women are all in the 5' to 5'4" range so I guess I'll be avoiding Latvia, don't have any interest in dating flagpoles.

[Deleted]

Tall women are entirely unattractive.

[Polyxo]

And I will climb both of them and plant a flag on top.

[Deleted]

The nations with the tallest men in 2014 (1914 ranking in brackets):
Netherlands (12)
Belgium (33)
Estonia (4)
Latvia (13)
Denmark (9)

Yet they produce almost no world class NBA players.

Might have something to do with Basket ball being a very little practiced sport in these regions.
You could have known that if you actually read into some details about our country's you bigot.
So racist of you TennisAce.

[Hooked]

I prefer shorter women, they eat less.

[Deleted]

Yeah, she looks Latvian and he looks Dutch.

[Zoibert the Bear]

The nations with the tallest men in 2014 (1914 ranking in brackets):
Netherlands (12)
Belgium (33)
Estonia (4)
Latvia (13)
Denmark (9)

Yet they produce almost no world class NBA players.

Basketball just is not as popular in those countries. Other sports, such as volleyball and rowing also take advantage of height.

You bigot.

Yeah, she looks Latvian and he looks Dutch.

Actually, the short man and woman are from East Timor and Guatemala respectively.

[Deleted]

I need to move to Estonia!

[Polyxo]

Yeah, she looks Latvian and he looks Dutch.

Actually, there's a decent amount of dutch black guys that I know of. My favorite kickboxer is a dutch black guy.

(I know Shaq is not dutch...)

[Cairhiin]

Well I won't be raising the Dutch average that's for sure. Only 180.