Dutch stature: Report shows the Netherlands has gotten taller

The Dutch have grown up over the past two centuries – quite literally. Once among the world’s shortest, the Netherlands is now a land of giants: on average, its women stand almost 1.71 metres (5 feet 7 inches) tall, and its men 1.84 metres. The average male height has gained 20 centimetres (eight inches) in the last 150 years. But how the Dutch became the world’s tallest people has been somewhat of a mystery.

Height is very heritable – taller parents tend to have somewhat taller children than shorter parents.

Gert Stulp, a specialist in population health at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine

Researchers led by Gert Stulp, a specialist in population health at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, combed a Dutch database for clues and found tall men had more children in the past three decades. With time, more and more Dutch started sporting tall genes. The most fertile men were 7 centimetres above average in height and, statistically, had 0.24 more children than the least fertile men, who were about 14 centimetres below average.

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