Dutch men, Latvian women tallest in world

NEW YORK: If you want to see a tall population of men, go to the Netherlands. Tall women? Latvia.

That’s the word from researchers who analysed a century’s worth of height data from 200 countries. Results were released on Monday in the journal, eLife.

National height averages are useful indicators of nutrition, health care, environment and general health that people have experienced from the womb through adolescence, said Majid Ezzati of Imperial College London, who led the research. Genes also influence height.

The researchers calculated average height for 18 year olds, roughly the age when people stop growing.

They drew on more than 1,400 studies on 18.6 million adults who reached 18 between 1914 and 2014.

The tallest men in the new analysis were Dutch, with an average height of 182.5cm.

The next nine tallest countries, in order for men, were Belgium, Estonia, Latvia, Denmark, BosniaHerzegovina, Croatia, Serbia, Iceland and the Czech Republic.

Latvia topped the list for women, with an average height of 170cm. Rounding out the top 10 were the Netherlands, Estonia, the Czech Republic, Serbia, Slovakia, Denmark, Lithuania, Belarus and Ukraine.

The biggest gains appeared in South Korean women and Iranian men, who added 20.2cm and 16.5cm respectively There was little change in South Asia and sub-Saharan African countries.

The shortest female population in the study is in Guatemala, at 149.4cm.

It is followed by the Philippines, Bangladesh, Nepal, East Timor, Madagascar, Laos, the Marshall Islands, India and Indonesia.

The shortest male population is in Timor Leste, at 160cm.

It is followed by Yemen, Laos, Madagascar, Malawi, Nepal, Rwanda, the Marshall Islands, the Philippines and Mauritania. AFP