In a curious study carrying both good and bad news for the Dutch, researchers revealed that the average height of this population has significantly declined in recent decades. This is the bad news, while the good news for the Dutch is that they remain the tallest people on Earth, both men and women, despite this decline. The study conducted by the official statistics office in the Netherlands found that citizens born in 2001 are shorter than their counterparts born in 1980. Currently, in the Netherlands, the average height of an adult male, starting from the age of 19, is 182.9 centimeters, while the average height of a woman is 169.3 centimeters. However, these figures reflect a "shrinking" in the average heights of men by one centimeter, and 1.4 centimeters among women.
The study indicated that there are factors likely responsible for the decline in heights of the Dutch overall, after a century and a half of rapid growth, such as immigration and diet. It explained, "Over the past century, we have been getting taller and taller, but since 1980, growth has stopped." The study continued: "Men born in 2001 were one centimeter shorter than the 1980 generation, and women 1.4 centimeters shorter on average." However, the Central Bureau of Statistics stated in a report that "the Dutch are still the tallest people in the world," with men surpassing their counterparts from Montenegro, Estonia, and Bosnia, while women exceed those from Montenegro, Denmark, and Iceland. The lowest average height for men was found in East Timor, while the shortest women were generally found in Guatemala.
