The most comprehensive study on human height around the world has just been published in the scientific journal eLife, revealing the countries with the tallest and shortest residents on the planet.
The report, conducted by scientists from Imperial College London in conjunction with the World Health Organisation, charts the height of 18-year-old men and women between 1914 and 2014 in 200 countries.
Data from health and nutrition surveys, military conscription records, and epidemiological studies were used to determine the findings of the report, which discovered that the global height average for men ranges from 182.5cm to 160cm, and 170cm to 149cm for women.
While the average difference in height between the shortest and tallest men has increased globally from 19cm in 1914 to 23cm in 2014, the study found that height growth has plateaued in Western countries like the US (which comes in 37th place for men, and 42nd for women) and UK (31st for men; 38th for women), which are getting overshadowed by higher-ranking European nations.
"The English-speaking world, especially the USA, is falling behind other high-income nations," Professor Majid Ezzati, who led the research at Imperial College London, said in a press release from the institution. "Together with the poor performance of these countries in terms of obesity, this emphasises the need for more effective policies towards healthy nutrition throughout life."
As for the countries with the shortest residents, for men, it's the Southeast Asian nation of Timor-Leste, where the average height is 159.8cm; for women, it's Guatemala, where the average height is 149.4cm.
Scroll down to see the 13 nations that are home to the tallest men and women in the world, respectively, along with the average height in centimetres for each country and its place in the ranking from 1914:
Note: Countries with the same average height are not tied; those that appear higher in the ranking have a slightly taller height range.
Countries with the tallest men in 2014
13. Norway (no. 2 in 1914) — 179.7
12. Slovenia (31) — 179.8
11. Germany (34) — 179.9
10. Czech Republic (24) — 180.1
9. Iceland (6) — 180.5
8. Serbia (30) — 180.6
7. Croatia (22) — 180.8
6. Bosnia and Herzegovina (19) — 180.9
5. Denmark (9) — 181.4
4. Latvia (13) — 181.4
3. Estonia (4) — 181.6
2. Belgium (33) — 181.7
1. Netherlands (12) — 182.5
Countries with the tallest women in 2014
13. Finland (no. 45 in 1914) — 165.9
12. Iceland (3) — 165.9
11. Slovenia (76) — 166.1
10. Ukraine (43) — 166.3
9. Belarus (42) — 166.3
8. Lithuania (41) — 166.6
7. Denmark (11) — 167.2
6. Slovakia (26) — 167.5
5. Serbia (93) — 167.7
4. Czech Republic (69) — 168.5
3. Estonia (16) — 168.7
2. Netherlands (38) — 168.7
1. Latvia (28) — 169.8
Click here for the full interactive ranking.
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