Dutch men and Latvian women enjoy the best view of global growth spurt
naky
www.diecastingpartsupplier.com
2016-07-28 18:01:20
Overall, the world has grown taller as economic prosperity and better nutrition have spread. But that growth has been uneven, according to the first comprehensive study of human height released at the European Science Open Forum in Manchester.In the tallest countries in 2014 — the US, Canada and Nordic countries — there has been relatively little change. In fact, growth stopped in the US in the early 1970s and there has been a slight decline in height since 2000, partly due to falling nutritional standards.
The fastest increases in average height have taken place in a belt stretching across continental Europe, the Middle East and the temperate parts of Asia. Iranian men are 16.5cm taller on average today than 100 years ago, while South Korean women are 20cm taller.
“Our study shows that the English-speaking world, especially the US, is falling behind other high-income nations in Europe and Asia-Pacific,” said Professor Majid Ezzati of Imperial College London, who led the research. It included measurements of 18.6m people aged 18 in 179 countries and was carried out by a global consortium of 800 scientists called NCD-RisC, in collaboration with the World Health Organisation.