A century of trends in adult human height

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…

• W
  Wellcome

  Award: 101506/Z/13/Z
• GC
  Grand Challenges Canada
• MR
  Medical Research Council

  Awards: MR/K006584/1, MC_UU_12011/4, MC_PC_13048, MC_UU_12011/3, MC_UU_12011/2, MR/N003284/1, MC_UU_12011/1, MC_UU_12015/1
• EA
  Economic and Social Research Council

  Award: ES/L007509/1