They are still the tallest people in the world, but still: N…

Our northern neighbors are still the tallest people in the world, but strangely enough they have been shrinking in recent years. Women born in 2001 are on average 1.4 centimeters shorter than the 1980 generation.

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In recent decades, the Dutch kept growing and growing, but that has now come to a halt. This is evident from figures from the Dutch Central Bureau of Statistics. Men born in 2001 are now on average 182.9 centimeters tall, for women it is 169.3 centimeters. That is respectively 1 and 1.4 centimeters shorter than the peak in 1980.

Until then, there were always a few centimeters added. While men born in 1930 averaged 175.6 centimeters tall, those born in 1980 reached 183.9 centimeters. Women also grew considerably: from 165.4 centimeters to 170.7 centimeters.

Worse food

The decline is partly due to the immigration of smaller people on average, but native Dutch people also became smaller. Statistics Netherlands does not provide an explanation for this, but Gert Stulp, who studies body heights at the University of Groningen, says in the Volkskrant that the same trend is also continuing in other countries. “In the United States, for example, growth is leveling off and women are shrinking slightly. It may be because people have started to eat less: less varied, more oily. That could also play a role here in the Netherlands.”

The contraction does not mean that the Dutch have to give up their title of tallest people in the world. Dutch men are being chased in that list by Montenegro and Estonia. Belgian men are in 24th place with a height of 179.1 centimeters. East Timor dangles at the very bottom.

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