Although they remain the tallest in the world, the Dutch have lost around one centimeter in just a few decades.
- Dutch men born in 2001 are on average 1 cm shorter than the generation born in 1980 and women are 1.4 cm shorter.
- One of the main causes of this shrinkage is to be found on the side of immigration and the arrival of people from countries where the inhabitants are smaller.
- The financial crisis, the diet and a possible biological limit are also pointed as factors of this shrinkage.
Are we doomed to shrink? An indication appeared last Friday with the publication of the results of the Dutch office for national statistics on the evolution of the size of its population, the largest in the world. After decades of pushes, the latest results mark a turning point: the Dutch, world champions in large sizes are getting smaller and smaller.
An even greater difference among women
Apart from the incongruity of the year 1967 when they ranked second, the Dutch monopolize the first place in the ranking of the largest population in the world since 1958. The latest results from the Centraal Bureau voor de Statistiek (CBS), a governmental institution, confirm this domination but underline that the new generations are smaller than the previous ones.
The results come from a survey of 719,000 people aged 19 to 60. They reveal that after a period of stagnation, Dutch men born in 2001 are on average 1 cm shorter than the generation born in 1980. An even more marked difference among Dutch women who are on average 1.4 cm shorter. Concretely, men born in 2001 measure 182.9 centimeters against 183.9 cm for their elders. Among women, the new generation peaks at 169.3 centimeters against 170.7 cm for the previous one.
Immigration, but not only
One of the main causes of this shrinkage is to be found on the side of immigration and the arrival of people from countries where the inhabitants are smaller. “But growth has also stagnated in generations in which both parents were born in the Netherlands, and in generations in which all four grandparents were born in the Netherlands.says the study. Non-migratory men have not become taller and non-migratory women show a downward trend.”
The publication of these results has led scientists to put forward different hypotheses as to the reasons that may explain them. “ Perhaps things like the financial crisis of 2007 meant that some children grew up in more difficult circumstances than in previous cohorts.suggests Dr Gert Stulp, from the Faculty of Behavioral and Social Sciences at the University of Groningen. Or maybe inequality has increased: we know that inequality affects average height, poorer childhood conditions lead to less growth in the vertical direction.”
The degradation of the diet is another hypothesis put forward. “Perhaps the diets of recent years contained fewer nutrients important forsays Dr. Gert Stulp. Even more speculatively, the decrease in height could be due to more people omitting animal products from their diets. But again, there is no evidence for this.”
A physiological limit?
Another explanation would be a possible biological limit. “People are not going to reach an average height of three meters“, thus indicated Dr. Gert Stulp. A better diet could, according to him, allow the Dutch to reverse the curve.
In the world rankings, Dutch men are ahead of those from Montenegro followed by Estonia and Bosnia. Among the women, the podium is completed here again by Montenegro as well as by Denmark. The smallest males are found in East Timor, while the smallest females are located in Guatemala.
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