Now that you know why people are taller today than historically check out this video and find out about The Many Myths Surrounding Charles Darwin: th-cam.com/video/_hxjlRpkM1M/w-d-xo.html
Nice job, Simon! Early illustrations showing Dutch settlers in 16th and 17th centuries meeting with the Indians of New England and the Atlantic seaboard show a dramatic difference in stature between the Europeans and the natives. The Indians diet at the time was close to ideal while the Europeans were experiencing the deficits to which you alluded. Sadly, the Indians diet has deteriorated tremendously since the reservation system was imposed with obesity and diabetes afflicting up to 50% in some tribes. The Netherlands have enjoyed a good diet since recovering from the Nazi- imposed shortages in WWII which resulted in low birth weight infants, allowing them to attain their genetic maximum in stature. The Dutch have had to modify building codes to accommodate their towering populations! The curve for the Us is interesting, but it likely due to the increasing percentage of Asians in the US populations since immigration laws were relaxed in the sixties. However it is also true that among Japanese Americans, each generation of immigrants is taller than there parents and grandparents for about three generation, until obtain their genetic maximum.
Sort of we were actually taller as hunter gatherers than we became until recent times. When you compare skeletons there's a marked decline when we moved from hunting to farming which oddly suggests we had a better diet as Hunters than as farmers suggesting the benefits from farming were far more than better regular food.
My family owns a five hundred year old house (more of a hut by todays standards), and I was told that the doorways were also built purposefully low to force you to bend over before entering. Far easier to decide who gets in or not when they have to stick their head through first.
You're almost right - doorways were often built extremely low historically. But this was either defensive - it's hard for invading troops to pile through a small door in a castle - or because interior doors were often made low, forcing visitors to stoop. The latter made the transition between rooms more of an event.
I am 6'5" and because of that I have size 14 feet and my feet tend to be bigger then steps on a stair case and this has caused me to fall down the stairs three times this year.
I think it was a graph that epitomized the common misconception rather than the actual reality which is far more complex as the rest of the video elucidated
I'm an American - 6 feet tall, 67 years old - and I'm seeing tons of young men that are significantly taller than me. Anecdotally, I would say that Americans are experiencing another growth spurt. Wonder if anyone else has noticed this trend?
Where in America? I'm 6'3", and 57. I grew up in Cali. Thought I was a bit taller than normal. Live in PA for two decades now. I'm easily the tallest person around. Damn rare to see anyone taller. And this is a college town.
I dont know if statistics would prove it to be true, but it sure seems that a lot more of the younger men I see these days are taller than me. I'm also 6' tall, which was seemed a bit taller than most when I was a young adult. But the average height of an adult US male was 5' 9" back in the 60's (or so I was told in school), which is about the same as today. Oh, and there sure seem to be a lot more women in the 6' range these days, too.
TheAzmountaineer Glad I am not the only one to notice this. "5' 2" and eyes of blue" is no longer the desirable female standard. They are taller and want to be even taller.
Interesting topic. I enjoyed it. Being a tall man, 1.93 meters or 6 feet 4 inches in height, I take little notice of other people's height mainly because there is such a mix. There are plenty of other tall people and so I don't take much notice. But image yourself if everywhere you went people were either significantly taller or significantly shorter than you. Suddenly, you'd become quite conscious of your conspicuous height difference, right? This is exactly the experience I've had every time I have visited France, Spain, and Italy. I towered over these people. Towered. I couldn't believe how uniformly short everyone was and how little height variation there was. Everyone was, more or less, the same size, and I really stood out - no pun intended. I had a similar experience with hair color when visiting England and Scandanavia. Sure there are plenty of blond-haired people in the USA but it was REALLY notable how much more common this is in Northern Europe. It seemed like more then half the population was blond. Fun topic. Thanks.
The myth according to which Napoleon was small came from the fact that at the time, French inches were longer than English inches. I think Napoleon was 5'7 when measured in English inches, but in French inches it was something like 5"4.
I'm 5'10", when I go to a concert of a 70's/80's band I have no trouble getting a good view of the stage. When I watch a current band the younger audience is clearly taller and getting a good view of the stage is much harder.
During the American Revolution, the average American was 5' 8", 3 inches taller than the British. Yet, the people living on the frontier, especially the Scotch-Irish were on average 6' tall. George Washington was 6' 2" tall.
Well, People grew alot taller, and actually maybe they grew beyond statistics, but still you are not that short you don't know what midget means, its like all people around are 7'7 feet, humans didn’t reach this limit yet, and maybe humans won't reach it
I would add to the list of why Europeans are now taller than Americans the type of food children get in school lunches. It America it's mostly frozen and pre-prepared garbage. I'd say this would be a big factor in the amount that children grow during their formative years.
Sure it does! Frozen and pre-prepared garbage has been processed and has lost many of its original nutrients. Thus, kids in America are getting worse nutrition than kids in countries where they get meals made with fresh ingredients.
I've recently discovered your set of channels, and I have to say that while you are very skilled in this video, your comfort with your personality and speaking patterns are head and shoulders above this now. I love the highly intellectual and informative nature of your videos, especially the Biographics Channel. Keep up the excellent work.
I am British, female, and 5'2". Maybe because I had shorter than average parents/grandparents (I don't know), possibly because my food supply was restricted in childhood. It is often not fun being shorter - literally being looked down on - shelves are often inaccessible without steps, hems on clothes have to be turned up. I have been looking for a bathtub short enough to relax in for years. But the only ones for sale are designed for the big people, I can almost swim in some of them! On the upside, I could wear children's clothes till I was about 30, can still wear children's shoes! (No VAT!!!!).
I have a custom bathtub that is about 5.5 feet!!! It was in a house I bought and I'm going to tear it out soon... lmk if u want it!!! Idk How we would ship it but if your interested it's yours!!!!
You compared American height to European height without controlling for ethnicity. Don't some ethnicities have different genetic heights causing a bigger difference? You should control for that.
drew34000 I don't know what to make of that, I'm about 6FT and when visiting the states I felt small, most people I saw were easily 6FT average. I don't see how it's down to health care considering the EU health is terrible and some of the worst health care. Also America has better weather and produce.
Where were you? Half of all white and black males in the USA should be below 6 feet, and the majority of Hispanic and Asian Americans are below 6 feet.
+lastwolflord Now, if only American presenters would have the same courtesy... And you want a system based on the physical world, +Inky Scrolls? Like, the length of my foot, or yours? My thumb, or yours? Because I'm afraid my thumb is closer to 5 cm, or an inch and a half... If you sell your stuff only in your city or country, no problem, but each time I have to buy clothes, I have to find a shop assistant to take my measurements to now my size in that particular shop (depending on them using UK sizes, US sizes, French sizes, German sizes...). Now imagine that while buying not only clothes, but also your groceries, describing your lot of land, the speed of your car, the distance to the next village (which might use a different standard...)... It would be a mess. Yes, it has worked for centuries, but with a lot of expensive handwork, trade going on mainly within the own community, etc. Now, I could be buying my clothes on-line at a Spanish shop, travel by car to Beijing while being aware perfectly how far I still need to go, as soon as I know the translation of the words, I can try a recipe from anywhere in the world... Except for the US, or some older English manuals. Very handy, indeed.
A thought about the nutrition difference over the years: in my youth (a long time ago), there was less food available for many people, and in colder areas, homes were without good heating and insulation, so more energy would have to be used to keep warm. Now that more homes are kept at higher temperatures, more of the food can be used for growth, as well as there being more food on the plate.
Breastfeeding was at a low in the sixties and seventies in the NL, while the children from that era got tall fast, so the maternity leave vs breastfeeding link is not in play in that period.
High quality fresh meat proteins such as beef are among items needed daily (but in relatively small quantities) to sustain growth in children and teens. A menu choice open to very few in the days before home "ice boxes" and then refrigerators became common. Dishes featuring chickens raised for their meat were mainly a feature of better restaurants and perhaps, on occasion, the dining rooms of the well off.
It may appear that American heights have stayed the same because of all the immigrants from countries noted for their shortness - e.g. hispanic and asian cultures.
Nick Doe yea I think so, cuz most white folks and American black folks (men) tend to be 5'10-6'1 and women 5'5-5'8 but most people of Latino decent tend to be 5'4-5'8 and normally there's no big difference between men and women in their gene pool.
Every first world country is made up of immigrants though, America's really nothing special on that front. It's probably like the dude said America's a really really new country and vast so has never had a food problem (really) but Europe is full of different countries and goes back to cavemen and beyond and is cramped, and as a result hosted countless wars including two world wars. It seem only after mass deaths such as war or disease does the growth rate heighten probably due to more food being available, which would explain Americas steady rate and Europe's sudden growth spurt after WW2. Is my theory anyway, obviously i could well be wrong.
@@me5969 While every first world country may have large immigrant populations, the USA is far more racially diverse than the Netherlands and has a much larger percentage of Asian, Pacific Islander, and Hispanic people or their descendants than does the Netherlands. Those populations are often, but by no means always, shorter than those of purely European ancestry.
Not really. Throughout history Europe is far more diverse as it’s close to Africa, specifically Egypt and the like, it’s connected to Asia, and not too mention all the constant invading over the years. Don’t forget a lot of what’s in America is from European countries. I’m not saying you’re wrong, you could well be correct but I wouldn’t be easily convinced that America is more racially diverse than three entire continents.
I'm an American who has very strong Dutch bloodlines. I'm 6'4". My high school was primarily Dutch and while I was on the taller end most Males were over 6 feet tall.
Anecdotally, first generation immigrants here in the USA are often taller than our relatives born outside the USA (my family is from Mexico). I have always wondered if it has to do more so with the hormones or chemicals used in the food that’s readily available here in the USA (especially poultry & beef) since outside the USA people are typically eating more “organic” foods grown by local & small farms or ranches. Or, could it simply be more related to environmental factors? I’ve always been curious about what could be the main factors involved in our significant height differences.
Wow I'm watching at the end of 2020 and their production quality has improved so much over the years. But the content is still just as awesome then as it is now! Good job Today I Found Out team.
The American demographic is distorted by massive immigration by Latino populations, specifically from Mexico and Central America, who have a much shorter median height.
Breast fed vs formula fed doesn't effect infant health or mortality. That myth has more to do with social construct and doesn't take into account social class, health care or education level.
One thing that they don't bring up in this video is that comparing people in the US vs Holland is not an apples o apples comparison since the USA is much more multi-ethnic than Holland. for Example in the US the average height of a white male is 178.9 cm so about the same as that of the average Swede or German.
Well, obviously Holland is not a country, it's just two provinces, but I'm glad you bring it up, because when taking out the other ten provinces that make up the Netherlands and just focus on the Hollands, they are not significantly less multicultural, or even "multi-ethnic" for those who believe in such a thing as ethnicity, than the US is.
Dutch man speaking... You obviously never been here, our country is so full of blacks and Arabs, I don't even live in the capital, I live in Rotterdam, and i see blacks from Somalia and Arabs from Syria and Algeria in markets and in malls, I go often to the Kralingse plas lake, and see many Arab families, anecdotally speaking, on average, the adults are 175 to 185cm, they're slightly shorter, but because they lived here for quite a while, their nutritional needs are met and more, we take care of our people regardless of their race, the blacks are much taller, with the height of 180-190cm on average, and most of them come from Somalia, those guys are genetically predisposed to get very tall!
Odin Odinmann this is actually goes well with my point in that it isnt an apples to apples comparison. If the proportion or the contents of an ethnic mix is different between the two countries is different then the comparison becomes unclear. If immigrants to Holland are disproportionately from east africa where some of the tallest people live while here in the USA the majority of immigrants are indiginous Mezo-Americans who are quote short then comparing the two countries becomes harder. The fact that Holland is approx 85% European and while the US is about 70% white. thats before taking in to account that the whites in holland are much more homogenous than White Americans.
kubaniski Autism? Didn't see that one coming. You might have called it pendantry, even OCD, but the link to autism is one that I do not see. By the way, if you think that the difference between Holland and the Netherlands is a trivial one that you can just gloss over, you've clearly never been to a part of the Netherlands that isn't Holland; people get very wound up about that, for the same reason that Welshman, Scots and Northern Irishmen get wound up if they're called English instead of British.
+Leopoldo Aranha You're over a hundred years old? That's so awesome, it's also fantastic how you learned to use modern technology, please tell me, what were the wars like? They sound scary.
Leopoldo Aranha Less aggressive but more death and the possibility of being bombed to smithereens?.... somehow I doubt that, just like how I doubt you're over a hundred years old.
I like your channel a lot and want to thank you for also using the metric system for us the non native english. By the way, you can say 1.85 instead of 185 cm just like you do for the feet (eg 6.2). Also if you don't want to always say the measurements in both scales, display it on the screen in after production. Anyway, I enjoy your videos a lot and keep them coming!
I'm pretty sure genetics also has something to do with it... I live in America. My mother is 5'7", and is the tallest female out of her 7 siblings. My father is 6'0", much taller than his sister. I am 6'1", and my brother is 6'3". So I'm convinced that since my parents were both the tallest in their families, my brother and I must have gotten our height from them, in addition to our access to "good nutrition". (we almost never ate fast food as kids, and still don't today)
My grandfather was tall and my dad short (to me ) i am 6 foot, i have brown hair so dose my mom and dad my, ex wife blonde My son is a redhead now my grandfather was a redhead so i am preaty sure Genetics plays a role here even if its hard to fallow some times. My grandfather was taller then me, my dad shorter then me, my grandfather and dad were very very poor but grew up on a farm and had all they could eat. So ya your family makes a difference not just what u eat
White and black Americans tower over recent immigrants from Mexico/Central America and Asia. Even their American born children are shorter than average. In California the non-Hispanic white population is now less than 40% whereas 50 years ago it was 80%. The Asian and Latin American population combined is about 55%. They are much shorter than whites and blacks who constitute less than 50%. That's why the average American height is dropping. You're assumptions about American diet, obesity and our health care system have nothing to do with average height. Genetics do. Our diet and health care is more than adequate to support a taller average height if the genetics of the general population support it. With recent immigration they increasingly don't.
I'm a taller than the average height for women in my country and have been since i was 14, i have wide shoulders and hips too and I've always felt a bit awkward about it, i can't explain how cool it was to go to Amsterdam were everyone was the same height and build as me! It's like i felt at home there, such a weird feeling, maybe it was because i could read dutch despite never having read it before (it's close to all the languages i know)
Dad was born in 1922 & was 6'3.5''. Mom, born in 1930, was 5'7". I was born in 1955 & was 5'8" . My husband is 5'10" & our older son near that, while our younger son is over 6'. Dad survived some nasty disease attacks & went to work at 8 yr old, before & after school, as his Dad had fallen from a roof & broken his back. He worked on the truck docks & brought his paychecks home to his Mom.
That last little bit describes me * 6 ft 5 197cm* knees lower back ankles ... Peoples unless you are genetically prevalent to grow above 6 ft .. good luck on clothing and shoes and cars and.. If i had my choice I'd keep my build and shrink to about 6ft to 6-2 It would make shirts a lot easier to find.
1:15 Every history book I've read that describes the Black Death says it killed about 1/3 of the population of Europe. Where did you find the estimate of 60%? We have the estimates made at the time, of the death tolls in major towns and cities, and they do not match your number. What's your source?
No mention of the relationship to the use of growth hormones in livestock and the rate at which people consume dairy and meat. Also nutrition should be broken down, even an abundance of calories from sugar can add to larger dimensions
My husband always goes down stairs at an angle. He learned to do that from being in the Navy where ships' stairs were ladders. He has size 13 shoes. I imagine that 16.5 would be a problem! Good luck & ignore the unkind remarks!
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+Nahodakk - That's as may be, but contrary to popular belief outside of the Netherlands, our drugs policy actually means we have one of the lowest drug consumption rates of Western Europe, not one of the highest.
I was 5'6" until I turned 66 years old. In my early teens the average pant legs were too short. By the time I was in my 30s that was no longer the case. The tall size pants were too tall and the average size pants weren't. That indicated, at least to me, that the average woman was now 5'6" and no longer considered tall.
banpiro No, you should watch the Vox video on why this is unimportant as if you were to start at zero, on certain graphs, the actual information may be too small to notice. Sure, you could say this can be used to overdramatized but graphs would either have to be gigantic or the same size and the information may be too small to notice, once again.
I asume the video you mean is "Shut up about the y-axis. It shouldn’t always start at zero.". I didn't knew it, thanks, it's interesting. I agree that not all charts should start at zero (body temperature, as they mentioned, is a great example), however , in this particular case the graph is misleading giving the impresion that the average male has more than double in size between 1871 and 1975, when the difference is a little less than 10 cm or about a 6% increase.
I agree Also, people tend to look for surface area more then height When a man is double the height, his area is 4 times larger. This was a prime exemple of what a bad graphic is.
Randy Newman had a great song about short people. Lol. My Dad was tall.. his Dad was short. My mother’s father was tall. That begat three tall children. I was 5’’8 at my tallest. My older brothers are still 6’6 and 6’4. I believe the nutrition idea because we ate much better than most of our neighbors. Meat chicken every night during the fifties and sixties. Our neighbors ate beans and veggies. It wasn’t an economical thing. We just spent our monies differently. My son is 6’4 and cousins are 6’2 and 6’3. Genetics and lifestyle differences.
Dojocho we have them because we use them more and in a longer range of motion think you need to pick up a...bag of garbage we will say wher as i almost have to bend 90 degrees because my height being 6"6 someone who is like 5"5 could just reach while standing up straight
I'm 5'10 (I'm a female though if it makes a difference) I have hypermobility and arthritis. My joints dislocate sometimes and when I was younger I was clumsy. The weather really isn't that much better "up there"
I don't know about pushing the "Healthcare" line. My grandfather was an ANZAC in WW I and he always said you could see the Aussies easily in English crowds. He said, on average, about a head taller than the English. Diet and exercise probably had more to do with it.
star heaven That makes no sense. A larger doorway (an open void, that may or may not need an actual door), would require fewer building materials. In addition, said materials (wood, stone, plaster, concrete), would cost more than an opening, or even a simple wooden door.
its not the material that brought the price up ,building a wall is cheap . a large opening in a wall could collapse from the sides under the pressure because its not being supported ,so extra care had to be added to make sure that doesn't happen bring the price up ,its only in the gothic era where people rediscoved ways to support buildings without thick flat walls to hold them up ,
Small size doors found on islands which were constantly under attack from invaders were a defensive measure. As the person enters the house bending down he could easily be dispatched with a blow to the head from someone inside. This was carried over to other areas which were under constant attack from invasion forces.
Even myself being 58 years old find a difference today, I can remember when seeing someone 6ft 4 was rare and you stared at someone when you seen someone so tall because it was rare. Nowadays seems most teenagers are close to that height. At least 6ft.
I'm about 6ft-Even. My brothers, Kjell III (chell, 6'1") and Eric (air-ick, 6'2") (all three of us are ½ Norwegian, ¼ German and ¼ Irish. Our Father (Kjell Jr. RIP) was 6'3" while our Mom peaked at 5'9". She's 5'8" now
Nope, country with the tallest people in the world is Bosnia & Herzegovina with 183,9cm for men and 171cm for women, followed by Montenegro, Netherlands is 3rd.
J. Rose by mexicans do you mean native americans? and btw centuries ago isn't exactly equivalent because this is a modern country with laws, borders, social programs, etc. Unfettered immigration is a problem when you don't give periods of time for the population to settle and mix.
Japanese are getting significantly taller too, and they are not multi-ethnic at all. A lot of my students in junior high in Japan are taller than I am (and I'm a white dude).
Growing up in a family in the 1960s and 70s relatively poor all five siblings were over 5'6" for girls and 5'11" for boys with no obesity. Even though mostly pasta and potatoe and cheap white bread and rice filled the meals. Very little junk food. maybe there is the difference.
I read a story about some Asian men who were prisoners of U.S. during WW2. They grew a couple of inches as American prisoners because they got better nutrition as prisoners than they had received as free men in their own country. After the war, their families expected to see them gaunt and emaciated as that was the fate of prisoners in their own country, but were of course very much surprised to see them healthier and taller than they had ever been. One reason for the false impression that people today are much taller than in medieval times (other than malnutrition in some medieval periods) is due to the fact that people (typically nobles) who wore armor in those days often went through a few suits of armor as they grew. This was to train them to wear armor as adults in battle. These training suits never saw battle, so they didn't get lost or destroyed on the battlefield, unlike adult armor which was typically used until it was useless. So basically we ended up with a disproportionate number of suits of short teenager armor which many people mistook for adult armor and which skewed our perception of average heights in those days.
It is very noticeable, I find, that children of immigrants from the Far East who were born and raised in Europe grow much, much taller than their parents. You'd think genes have a lot to do with height, but it really seems to be just nutrition and other environmental parameters.
(rolls eyes) Adults don't grow in height(except for a very rare number of people, who have a genetic mutation which causes them to keep growing until it kills them).And archeologists didn't come to their conclusions about the average height of people from the Middle Ages by looking at armor...they drew them by examining ACTUAL SKELETONS of people from the Middle Ages.Everyone knows this. You're not fooling anyone.
How can you grow a couple of inches in only a couples years in POW. Your developmental years of good habits and nutrition effects potential height. Could those POWs have been young teens? They may not have completed growing, so when they returned home, they look taller. North Koreans who went through famine and malnutrition are stunted. When they defect to S.Korea or america, they don't get an automatic growth spurt? I'm chinese, grew up in canada. I'm dramatically taller than my cousins in China. They claim I'm 6 feet. I'm not, but the difference is quite stark.
Gewgulkan Suhckitt WOW! You must have a pretty big ass which enables you to pull so many bullshit stories out of it! What do you do? Do you have fantasies that you can not distinguish from reality? If so, you seriously need some professional help, and you should seek it! Are you able to come up with all of these "facts" naturally, or do you consume hallucinogenic drugs to accomplish your delusional state? When you typed in your comment did you think that people would read it and then say "That Gewgulkan Suhckitt certainly knows a lot of facts that no one else on Earth seems to know, he must be super intelligent!" If so, you have failed!
legion1a I knew a man who went to war in WW2 at 5'2". The Army fed him so much better that he ate at home that after two years he returned home 6" taller at 6'2". He said he had to convince his mom that he was her son.
I took German in school, and my 7th and 8th grade German teacher was Dutch. She looked like an NFL linebacker, and had a beehive hairdo like Marge Simpson. Lolz.
im an american. i'm 5'7 (female) and most of my friends and people i work with (female) are about my height or TALLER. I am by no means considered tall, buy rather average. Most men however seem to be about 5'10.(although they will say they are taller) i really think the 5'4 average for women is due to some very short people bringing the average down.
The fashion industry has something to do with that, I think; they barely acknowledge women your height, and almost completely ignore women of my height (six feet tall).
@@jenniferbrewer5370 everything fits me legnth wise. which is why i say 5'7 is the real average. that said ive been a size nine since high school (im 41) and now as people get larger im having to go drastically down in size. im now about a 5 in most stores.
As a Catalan in my middle forties I cannot agree more, because I see everyday what a good healthy food and universal care is doing for our offspring. Our grandparents after civil war , the average poor republican population mainly ,suffer of malnutrition and lack of vitamins anf food, nearly to starvation. It was "normal" to find women of 1'50 cm and men of 1'60 cm at much. I always thought "Mediterraneans" were shorter than Duchts. When you go to The Netherlands everybody is huge! But now a days our children is like 20cm taller than our grandparents. This change of hight is not related to genetics but to stable access to healthy food and way of live and universal health care. Our children are growing healthier and taller.
That is a terrible graph. To the casual viewer it might seem that we have almost doubled in height in a century while the actual change is closer to 5%. Setting the y axis origin to an unmarked value (I guess around 158cm) grossly exaggerates the change. If this were redrawn with the origin at 0 the change would be hardly noticeable. As with many of the 'Today I Found Out' videos there is nothing surprising here; better health and nutrition leads to taller, healthier people.
I'm the shortest full grown woman in my family at 5ft 8 in. My husband is 6 ft 3 in and my brother is right about 7 feet tall. My 13 yr old nephew has already out grown me at about 6 foot. I expect himbti get at least as tall as my brother who is not ecen the tallest man born in my family that was an ancestor named Rose who was over 7 ft when he was full grown. I think nutrition does have a lot to do with it but my grandfather grew up during the great depression and made it to 6 feet 4 so I also believe genetics plays a very big role in it. And also taller people tend to marry each other there fore having taller offspring.
I remember reading a fascinating book on the early angles and Saxons before 1066, and the skeletons they have dug up. Apparently the average height was over 6', then people started shrinking as the food sources weren't as nutritious due to famines and plagues etc, and only recently are they starting to regrow as better food is available. Made for interesting reading.
glorificusbarryhex True but there I would guess there are more written well kept historical records like this in Europe and it's surrounding areas than in places like India or Korea (where they didn't have a written alphabet until the 1400's). it's not simply about Europe nor the US but about well kept and readily accessible historical records.
But there are written records from places outside of Europe and China. And this video really only focuses on records from the last 400 years or so. A time period where multiple cultures across the world kept written records, from economic to regular gossip. This video pretty much ignored readily available resources to give a biased view on history. It's just lazy research.
glorificusbarryhex Lazy research? This is TH-cam and he's British. "Research" is not what TH-camrs do, it's what scholars and scientists do. And, what's wrong with a person doing a video on what they want? it's what literally all TH-camrs do. Want something not about primarily European people do a search for it.
Laura S. This is supposed to be an informative video and this channel is supposed to supply content that most people don't know about or provide a forum for learning. So this channel isn't even doing the bare minimum of what it's positioned itself to be.
The average Homo Erectus (ca. 250,000 BC) averaged about 5'9". Cro Magnons (ca. 35,000 BC) were about the same heifgt, as were people in the early stone age. We started getting shorter with crowding and relying on agriculture, which is prone to famine due to weather and distribution bottlenecks. Take a look at a 5'2" Chinese grandmother from the post WW II era standing proudly next to her 6'2" grandson (who graduated from the Shau Lin Monastery).
Now that you know why people are taller today than historically check out this video and find out about The Many Myths Surrounding Charles Darwin:
th-cam.com/video/_hxjlRpkM1M/w-d-xo.html
Nice job, Simon!
Early illustrations showing Dutch settlers in 16th and 17th centuries meeting with the Indians of New England and the Atlantic seaboard show a dramatic difference in stature between the Europeans and the natives. The Indians diet at the time was close to ideal while the Europeans were experiencing the deficits to which you alluded. Sadly, the Indians diet has deteriorated tremendously since the reservation system was imposed with obesity and diabetes afflicting up to 50% in some tribes.
The Netherlands have enjoyed a good diet since recovering from the Nazi- imposed shortages in WWII which resulted in low birth weight infants, allowing them to attain their genetic maximum in stature. The Dutch have had to modify building codes to accommodate
their towering populations!
The curve for the Us is interesting, but it likely due to the increasing percentage of Asians in the US populations since immigration laws were relaxed in the sixties. However it is also true that among Japanese Americans, each generation of immigrants is taller than there parents and grandparents for about three generation, until obtain their genetic maximum.
Explain Tom Cruise.
No, really. Explain Tom Cruise. Is he like a mini robot/everything.
I was going to watch this video but hit my head on the top of the doorway and had to go get that attended to.....
Sort of we were actually taller as hunter gatherers than we became until recent times. When you compare skeletons there's a marked decline when we moved from hunting to farming which oddly suggests we had a better diet as Hunters than as farmers suggesting the benefits from farming were far more than better regular food.
I know why people are bigger dumbass
Yet they still haven't changed bed length in like 70 years. Tall people know the struggle.
Thank you for that do your feet hang off to, and i am only 6 ft tall what the hech
Get a California King mattress!
My family has to buy all of our beds from Ikea because of the extra few inches.
Hospitals can add bed extenders. My father was hospitalized for a car crash once.
Welp I guess I should be thankful I’m 4 feet 11 inches. A twin bed is basically a queen for me 😂
they were actually the same height as modern people but built tiny doorways to mess with historians
they were very dedicated to the joke
My family owns a five hundred year old house (more of a hut by todays standards), and I was told that the doorways were also built purposefully low to force you to bend over before entering. Far easier to decide who gets in or not when they have to stick their head through first.
It all makes sense now
This is ̶ ̶a̶l̶3̶6̶9̶9̶..GOOGLE'S CHANNEL they also built small adult skeletons as a joke
You're almost right - doorways were often built extremely low historically. But this was either defensive - it's hard for invading troops to pile through a small door in a castle - or because interior doors were often made low, forcing visitors to stoop. The latter made the transition between rooms more of an event.
“60% percent of the population died, which left 40% of the population plenty of room and resources to grow”
*thanos liked that*
xUdieToox - So the black plague inspired Thanos' "snap" judgement!?
xUdieToox omg you are right.
Bruh
Ummm... Thanos insisted on 50%. So, just debunked your theory. Sorry!!! :D
I am 6'5" and because of that I have size 14 feet and my feet tend to be bigger then steps on a stair case and this has caused me to fall down the stairs three times this year.
***** I do I look straight down so i don't fall XD
Hatred Clay I'm 6'9" with size 16.5 feet and this isn't a problem for me... Turn your feet sideways when going down the stairs... Works like a charm
Viking.Two Good idea!
im 6'0 and half puetro rican, dodged a bullet there
no you didn't.
your still Puerto Rican
0:26 extremely misleading graph
True
Yeah, I really hate that graph. Tempting to stop watching the video right there.
It wasn't meant to be a good graph. It's a hook to keep people watching.
I think it was a graph that epitomized the common misconception rather than the actual reality which is far more complex as the rest of the video elucidated
I'm an American - 6 feet tall, 67 years old - and I'm seeing tons of young men that are significantly taller than me. Anecdotally, I would say that Americans are experiencing another growth spurt. Wonder if anyone else has noticed this trend?
Where in America? I'm 6'3", and 57. I grew up in Cali. Thought I was a
bit taller than normal. Live in PA for two decades now. I'm easily the
tallest person around. Damn rare to see anyone taller. And this is a
college town.
I suspect bovine growth-hormone plays a part here.
MadNotAngry Southern California.
I dont know if statistics would prove it to be true, but it sure seems that a lot more of the younger men I see these days are taller than me. I'm also 6' tall, which was seemed a bit taller than most when I was a young adult. But the average height of an adult US male was 5' 9" back in the 60's (or so I was told in school), which is about the same as today. Oh, and there sure seem to be a lot more women in the 6' range these days, too.
TheAzmountaineer Glad I am not the only one to notice this. "5' 2" and eyes of blue" is no longer the desirable female standard. They are taller and want to be even taller.
Interesting topic. I enjoyed it. Being a tall man, 1.93 meters or 6 feet 4 inches in height, I take little notice of other people's height mainly because there is such a mix. There are plenty of other tall people and so I don't take much notice. But image yourself if everywhere you went people were either significantly taller or significantly shorter than you. Suddenly, you'd become quite conscious of your conspicuous height difference, right? This is exactly the experience I've had every time I have visited France, Spain, and Italy. I towered over these people. Towered. I couldn't believe how uniformly short everyone was and how little height variation there was. Everyone was, more or less, the same size, and I really stood out - no pun intended. I had a similar experience with hair color when visiting England and Scandanavia. Sure there are plenty of blond-haired people in the USA but it was REALLY notable how much more common this is in Northern Europe. It seemed like more then half the population was blond. Fun topic. Thanks.
Short answer: food and healthcare
Well that explains why Americans arent the tallest ones in the world
Seems an easy answer to arrive to. It's the same answer to the question: why do people live longer these days?
@@audience7264 then why are the Dinka, Nuer, Tutsi, and Wodaabe so tall?
I’m 6’2” and not athletic. Next made up reason?
So we should have a lot of short people as actors in historical movies.
or way bigger movie sets
The sets for the Titanic movie were built in a 1.1:1.0 ratio since the original blueprints didn't consider people as tall as today.
I can see it now...Tom Cruise as William the Conqueror! Tom Cruise as Louis XIV! Tom Cruise as Leonardo Da Vinci! Tom Cruise as the Pope!
Merry Machiavelli Don't forget Napoleon (who was actually kinda tall for his time).
The myth according to which Napoleon was small came from the fact that at the time, French inches were longer than English inches. I think Napoleon was 5'7 when measured in English inches, but in French inches it was something like 5"4.
I'm 5'10", when I go to a concert of a 70's/80's band I have no trouble getting a good view of the stage. When I watch a current band the younger audience is clearly taller and getting a good view of the stage is much harder.
I've noticed that today too, the younger generations are alot taller
That's because young people can still stand up straight!
@@namegoeshereorhere5020 Only when they make an effort, otherwise they are hunched over looking at phone screens
I am 183cm (6ft) and i lived in the Netherlands.
I didn't feel average, i felt short.
Most men were at least 188cm (around 6ft2)
Haha true im 6feet but sometimes i feel 5ft7 (1.70) like damn why is everyone 6ft2/3+
I am 184 cm remind me not to go visit the Netherlands If I want to feel above avarege
You're tall asf here in south east asia
@@ahmadjauhar4562 even that is changing. My wife is Asian and kids are half. I've been to Asia many times. Young Asians are getting taller.
During the American Revolution, the average American was 5' 8", 3 inches taller than the British. Yet, the people living on the frontier, especially the Scotch-Irish were on average 6' tall. George Washington was 6' 2" tall.
Bruh It's Army what do you expect ....to recruit an Average male?
@@aishchaudhary8840 yes because that’s what the army consists of
I'm 6'4". I'm going to travel back in time and stomp on all those short people! RAAAAGH!!! ME SMASH!
Assholes do this these days
When are you headed back? I've some business in the past, can I hitch a ride? Promise I won't get in the way of your smashing and stomping.
Don't try it. They were handy with swords back then. They'll cut you off at the knees!
@T Doran I did. Now I'm banned from at least 11 countries. :-(
@@tigermunky what If they just go inside
I'm a 5'10'' male and I feel like a midget these days, people are friggin' HUGE!
I'm 5"5...
I'm a 5'3" guy. I don't have a problem with it.
Don't worry because you are taller than most of the historical warriors 🙏
Well, People grew alot taller, and actually maybe they grew beyond statistics, but still you are not that short you don't know what midget means, its like all people around are 7'7 feet, humans didn’t reach this limit yet, and maybe humans won't reach it
5’7 woman here and I feel the same. 😂😂
I would add to the list of why Europeans are now taller than Americans the type of food children get in school lunches. It America it's mostly frozen and pre-prepared garbage. I'd say this would be a big factor in the amount that children grow during their formative years.
frozen and pre-prepared garbage probably doesn't change how much you grow
Sure it does! Frozen and pre-prepared garbage has been processed and has lost many of its original nutrients. Thus, kids in America are getting worse nutrition than kids in countries where they get meals made with fresh ingredients.
I got one word for you. Mexicans.
+Glen Phenix Mexicans only make up 11% of the US population...
Rick Grimes It's a joke.
I've recently discovered your set of channels, and I have to say that while you are very skilled in this video, your comfort with your personality and speaking patterns are head and shoulders above this now. I love the highly intellectual and informative nature of your videos, especially the Biographics Channel. Keep up the excellent work.
Thanks for making this video, I'm 198 cm tall and always wondered why I'm so much taller that my parentes and grandparents.
I am British, female, and 5'2". Maybe because I had shorter than average parents/grandparents (I don't know), possibly because my food supply was restricted in childhood. It is often not fun being shorter - literally being looked down on - shelves are often inaccessible without steps, hems on clothes have to be turned up. I have been looking for a bathtub short enough to relax in for years. But the only ones for sale are designed for the big people, I can almost swim in some of them! On the upside, I could wear children's clothes till I was about 30, can still wear children's shoes! (No VAT!!!!).
I have a custom bathtub that is about 5.5 feet!!! It was in a house I bought and I'm going to tear it out soon... lmk if u want it!!! Idk How we would ship it but if your interested it's yours!!!!
You compared American height to European height without controlling for ethnicity. Don't some ethnicities have different genetic heights causing a bigger difference? You should control for that.
drew34000 I don't know what to make of that, I'm about 6FT and when visiting the states I felt small, most people I saw were easily 6FT average.
I don't see how it's down to health care considering the EU health is terrible and some of the worst health care.
Also America has better weather and produce.
Where were you? Half of all white and black males in the USA should be below 6 feet, and the majority of Hispanic and Asian Americans are below 6 feet.
drew34000 I'm British, and I was in the south.
Even the girls are taller.
The majority of whites and blacks were 6ft and taller.
kylethedalek
What part of the south? I often travel to Mississippi, Luisiana, and Alabama, and the majority of the people I've seen are around 5'8
James Becke all over tbh, I would say southern people are taller. Maybe because of the good weather?
1500 B.C., Saul, king of the Hebrews was said to be "head and shoulders" above the other Hebrews. He was about 6 foot tall.
More like 8' +!
That's royalty for ya, he could eat all the good food he wanted his whole life, so he grew taller
Glad you do inches for us in the U.S. A lot of people who do vids like this assume everyone does centimeters.
lastwolflord probably because most people in the world use centimetres...
Gavin Monaghan Yup. But it's still good that he understands not everyone does. So it helps to include everyone in the vid.
And for us in the UK who refuse to switch over to a nasty French system with no bearing on the physical world!
Nearly everyone in the world does centimeters though.
+lastwolflord Now, if only American presenters would have the same courtesy...
And you want a system based on the physical world, +Inky Scrolls? Like, the length of my foot, or yours? My thumb, or yours? Because I'm afraid my thumb is closer to 5 cm, or an inch and a half... If you sell your stuff only in your city or country, no problem, but each time I have to buy clothes, I have to find a shop assistant to take my measurements to now my size in that particular shop (depending on them using UK sizes, US sizes, French sizes, German sizes...). Now imagine that while buying not only clothes, but also your groceries, describing your lot of land, the speed of your car, the distance to the next village (which might use a different standard...)...
It would be a mess. Yes, it has worked for centuries, but with a lot of expensive handwork, trade going on mainly within the own community, etc. Now, I could be buying my clothes on-line at a Spanish shop, travel by car to Beijing while being aware perfectly how far I still need to go, as soon as I know the translation of the words, I can try a recipe from anywhere in the world... Except for the US, or some older English manuals. Very handy, indeed.
I was once confused for a leprechaun. How many people can say that?
My growth was stunted by daily servings of coffee and a revolving cocktail of ADHD meds when I was a kid.
same
Are you sure its wasn't masturbation, tell the truth.
I am a 5'9" American woman of swedish/English ancestry. And I'm TOUGH too GGGGGRRRRRRrrr
Me too!! 5’10” American woman with Swedish and English (and french) ancestry! Let’s be relatives.
A thought about the nutrition difference over the years: in my youth (a long time ago), there was less food available for many people, and in colder areas, homes were without good heating and insulation, so more energy would have to be used to keep warm. Now that more homes are kept at higher temperatures, more of the food can be used for growth, as well as there being more food on the plate.
The dutch must be tall to avoid drowning
When I first learned about this, it made me wonder if we were slowly becoming giants.
Breastfeeding was at a low in the sixties and seventies in the NL, while the children from that era got tall fast, so the maternity leave vs breastfeeding link is not in play in that period.
High quality fresh meat proteins such as beef are among items needed daily (but in relatively small quantities) to sustain growth in children and teens. A menu choice open to very few in the days before home "ice boxes" and then refrigerators became common. Dishes featuring chickens raised for their meat were mainly a feature of better restaurants and perhaps, on occasion, the dining rooms of the well off.
Among us
That’s kinda sus
It may appear that American heights have stayed the same because of all the immigrants from countries noted for their shortness - e.g. hispanic and asian cultures.
Nick Doe yea I think so, cuz most white folks and American black folks (men) tend to be 5'10-6'1 and women 5'5-5'8 but most people of Latino decent tend to be 5'4-5'8 and normally there's no big difference between men and women in their gene pool.
A lot of research is misleading because people don't consider birth rate and immigration factors.
Every first world country is made up of immigrants though, America's really nothing special on that front. It's probably like the dude said America's a really really new country and vast so has never had a food problem (really) but Europe is full of different countries and goes back to cavemen and beyond and is cramped, and as a result hosted countless wars including two world wars. It seem only after mass deaths such as war or disease does the growth rate heighten probably due to more food being available, which would explain Americas steady rate and Europe's sudden growth spurt after WW2. Is my theory anyway, obviously i could well be wrong.
@@me5969 While every first world country may have large immigrant populations, the USA is far more racially diverse than the Netherlands and has a much larger percentage of Asian, Pacific Islander, and Hispanic people or their descendants than does the Netherlands. Those populations are often, but by no means always, shorter than those of purely European ancestry.
Not really. Throughout history Europe is far more diverse as it’s close to Africa, specifically Egypt and the like, it’s connected to Asia, and not too mention all the constant invading over the years. Don’t forget a lot of what’s in America is from European countries. I’m not saying you’re wrong, you could well be correct but I wouldn’t be easily convinced that America is more racially diverse than three entire continents.
I’m a dutch woman, 20 y/o and 186 cm tall (nearly 6’1”)
Just felt like sharing that lmao
😍😍😍😍😍😍
You are a big girl.
@T Doran Not really... The average height of a Dutch woman is about 1.70 to 1.72.
Do you eat loads of gouda cheese?
@@henryhoover3953 lmao no.
I'm an American who has very strong Dutch bloodlines. I'm 6'4".
My high school was primarily Dutch and while I was on the taller end most Males were over 6 feet tall.
Did you have any students who are over 6'7 in your high school?
I'm an American and 6'4" as well. I'm originally from the Balkans though.
Anecdotally, first generation immigrants here in the USA are often taller than our relatives born outside the USA (my family is from Mexico). I have always wondered if it has to do more so with the hormones or chemicals used in the food that’s readily available here in the USA (especially poultry & beef) since outside the USA people are typically eating more “organic” foods grown by local & small farms or ranches. Or, could it simply be more related to environmental factors?
I’ve always been curious about what could be the main factors involved in our significant height differences.
Without good educational videos like these, many people from under developed countries believe they are just genetically inferior
Wow I'm watching at the end of 2020 and their production quality has improved so much over the years. But the content is still just as awesome then as it is now! Good job Today I Found Out team.
The American demographic is distorted by massive immigration by Latino populations, specifically from Mexico and Central America, who have a much shorter median height.
Breast fed vs formula fed doesn't effect infant health or mortality. That myth has more to do with social construct and doesn't take into account social class, health care or education level.
One thing that they don't bring up in this video is that comparing people in the US vs Holland is not an apples o apples comparison since the USA is much more multi-ethnic than Holland. for Example in the US the average height of a white male is 178.9 cm so about the same as that of the average Swede or German.
Well, obviously Holland is not a country, it's just two provinces, but I'm glad you bring it up, because when taking out the other ten provinces that make up the Netherlands and just focus on the Hollands, they are not significantly less multicultural, or even "multi-ethnic" for those who believe in such a thing as ethnicity, than the US is.
Robert Faber we're reaching levels of autism not previously thought possible.
Dutch man speaking... You obviously never been here, our country is so full of blacks and Arabs, I don't even live in the capital, I live in Rotterdam, and i see blacks from Somalia and Arabs from Syria and Algeria in markets and in malls, I go often to the Kralingse plas lake, and see many Arab families, anecdotally speaking, on average, the adults are 175 to 185cm, they're slightly shorter, but because they lived here for quite a while, their nutritional needs are met and more, we take care of our people regardless of their race, the blacks are much taller, with the height of 180-190cm on average, and most of them come from Somalia, those guys are genetically predisposed to get very tall!
Odin Odinmann this is actually goes well with my point in that it isnt an apples to apples comparison. If the proportion or the contents of an ethnic mix is different between the two countries is different then the comparison becomes unclear. If immigrants to Holland are disproportionately from east africa where some of the tallest people live while here in the USA the majority of immigrants are indiginous Mezo-Americans who are quote short then comparing the two countries becomes harder. The fact that Holland is approx 85% European and while the US is about 70% white. thats before taking in to account that the whites in holland are much more homogenous than White Americans.
kubaniski Autism? Didn't see that one coming. You might have called it pendantry, even OCD, but the link to autism is one that I do not see.
By the way, if you think that the difference between Holland and the Netherlands is a trivial one that you can just gloss over, you've clearly never been to a part of the Netherlands that isn't Holland; people get very wound up about that, for the same reason that Welshman, Scots and Northern Irishmen get wound up if they're called English instead of British.
My maternal grandfather was 6' 4" and weighed about 300 pounds was a blacksmith by trade, and was born in 1862.
I must be really fucking ancient then 'cause I'm 153 cm(5 ft?).. Swedish average height for women today are between 165-175 i believe
I'm a late 19th/early 20th century 1,70 cm male, I know how you feel.
+Leopoldo Aranha
You're over a hundred years old? That's so awesome, it's also fantastic how you learned to use modern technology, please tell me, what were the wars like? They sound scary.
Boglenight War is just like political discussions on the internet, but less aggressive.
Leopoldo Aranha
Less aggressive but more death and the possibility of being bombed to smithereens?.... somehow I doubt that, just like how I doubt you're over a hundred years old.
Boglenight It almost feels like I'm kidding.
I like your channel a lot and want to thank you for also using the metric system for us the non native english. By the way, you can say 1.85 instead of 185 cm just like you do for the feet (eg 6.2). Also if you don't want to always say the measurements in both scales, display it on the screen in after production. Anyway, I enjoy your videos a lot and keep them coming!
I'm pretty sure genetics also has something to do with it...
I live in America.
My mother is 5'7", and is the tallest female out of her 7 siblings.
My father is 6'0", much taller than his sister.
I am 6'1", and my brother is 6'3".
So I'm convinced that since my parents were both the tallest in their families, my brother and I must have gotten our height from them, in addition to our access to "good nutrition". (we almost never ate fast food as kids, and still don't today)
My entire family are tiny yet I'm 2.04m and I don't really eat much I'm quite underweight and it's always confused me
My grandfather was tall and my dad short (to me ) i am 6 foot, i have brown hair so dose my mom and dad my, ex wife blonde
My son is a redhead now my grandfather was a redhead so i am preaty sure Genetics plays a role here even if its hard to fallow some times. My grandfather was taller then me, my dad shorter then me, my grandfather and dad were very very poor but grew up on a farm and had all they could eat. So ya your family makes a difference not just what u eat
My family has a majority of tall men and women. My great uncle was 7'4" , another uncle is 6'9" & I'm 6'2" .
White and black Americans tower over recent immigrants from Mexico/Central America and Asia. Even their American born children are shorter than average. In California the non-Hispanic white population is now less than 40% whereas 50 years ago it was 80%. The Asian and Latin American population combined is about 55%. They are much shorter than whites and blacks who constitute less than 50%. That's why the average American height is dropping. You're assumptions about American diet, obesity and our health care system have nothing to do with average height. Genetics do. Our diet and health care is more than adequate to support a taller average height if the genetics of the general population support it. With recent immigration they increasingly don't.
I'm a taller than the average height for women in my country and have been since i was 14, i have wide shoulders and hips too and I've always felt a bit awkward about it, i can't explain how cool it was to go to Amsterdam were everyone was the same height and build as me! It's like i felt at home there, such a weird feeling, maybe it was because i could read dutch despite never having read it before (it's close to all the languages i know)
in the age before agriculture, the skeletons found showed that people back then were AS TALL as modern people now.
Yes hunter gatherers had a much healthier diet and lifestyle.
Today I found out that there are still people ignorant willfully or not that giants are part of human anthropology.
"Today's average American man is five feet nine inches". That's just around his waist ! 😋
Same thing goes with women.
American woman here.... 5’10” and a 25” waist. But your jokes are funny, you short arses
Eli Carraway Giant freak lol
@@elicarraway5131 Still shorter than me i am 15 and 6 feet 🇫🇮 Finland
@@elicarraway5131 He talks about statistics, he is not lying, I guess either the statistics are wrong or us Short men don't go out alot
Sob sob my parents never had maternal leave, so now I am short.
"Why Are People So Much Taller Today Than Historically?" Proceeds to talk about human MALE height.
Oh know, call the social justice police and arrest this guy!
He talked about both.
And your simpin still won't get you laid.
Today I found out this is a great channel. Thanks 😁
When you're at a very comfortable 179cm, but you're still a shorty because you're Dutch...
Man I gotta go traveling around there, I'm a 178cm woman in Australia, where the average female is 162cm and average male is 175cm
Nobody know how tall that is...
@@thenegativoneify everyone knows because everybody literally uses the metric system
@@thenegativoneify I’m 6 ft tall 181 cm. Meaning they are around 5’11 3/4
Dad was born in 1922 & was 6'3.5''. Mom, born in 1930, was 5'7". I was born in 1955 & was 5'8" . My husband is 5'10" & our older son near that, while our younger son is over 6'. Dad survived some nasty disease attacks & went to work at 8 yr old, before & after school, as his Dad had fallen from a roof & broken his back. He worked on the truck docks & brought his paychecks home to his Mom.
That last little bit describes me * 6 ft 5 197cm* knees lower back ankles ...
Peoples unless you are genetically prevalent to grow above 6 ft .. good luck on clothing and shoes and cars and..
If i had my choice I'd keep my build and shrink to about 6ft to 6-2 It would make shirts a lot easier to find.
1:15 Every history book I've read that describes the Black Death says it killed about 1/3 of the population of Europe. Where did you find the estimate of 60%? We have the estimates made at the time, of the death tolls in major towns and cities, and they do not match your number. What's your source?
No mention of the relationship to the use of growth hormones in livestock and the rate at which people consume dairy and meat. Also nutrition should be broken down, even an abundance of calories from sugar can add to larger dimensions
My husband always goes down stairs at an angle. He learned to do that from being in the Navy where ships' stairs were ladders. He has size 13 shoes. I imagine that 16.5 would be a problem! Good luck & ignore the unkind remarks!
I noticed how tall are teens today, all teens in the age of 14-18 are already 1.80 and higher, when i was that age i was way smaller
No mention of the vast amount of growth hormones, that are injected into the livestock we eat? Seems like it would matter.
As far as I know, growth hormones are banned in Europe, so that would dismiss it, though you had a great idea !
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Random. My birds won't stop chirping through this video. :)
Take Hispanics and Asians out of the mix and I think you'll find the average white American is just as tall as Europe.
Lol probably, I'm lucky I'm as tall as I am considering I'm hispanic.
billybassman21 Good point, but you haven't been to West Pennsylvania recently where the women are as tall as they are wide.
Eating cheese (or drinking milk) combined with EVERYBODY driving the bike every day in all weather and all seasons does the trick for the Dutch.
+Nahodakk - That's as may be, but contrary to popular belief outside of the Netherlands, our drugs policy actually means we have one of the lowest drug consumption rates of Western Europe, not one of the highest.
They ride their bikes when the roads have ice and snow on them?
***** I do, yes. I've lost quite a few pairs of jeans that way, but I do...
They pour snow removal salt on the roads and bicycle lanes in The Netherlands, so you are safe on most major roads during winter.
only on the mayor roads, if you live in a large town there is a chance you have to cycle on icy roads.
My in laws are Welsh and are barely 5ft. I am Dutch and 5'9" , but their eldest son is 6'3". Our children tower above us!
Everyone has a right to be tall.
False
good video, and thanks for using metric units
some believe hormones in cows milk has cause increase in height. I am not sure if hormone form a different species would do this myself
Growth hormone wouldn't because it's a protein. Some others might.
I was 5'6" until I turned 66 years old. In my early teens the average pant legs were too short. By the time I was in my 30s that was no longer the case. The tall size pants were too tall and the average size pants weren't. That indicated, at least to me, that the average woman was now 5'6" and no longer considered tall.
0.15 Bad graphic. This kind of graphic should always begin at 0 or they are misleading.
banpiro No, you should watch the Vox video on why this is unimportant as if you were to start at zero, on certain graphs, the actual information may be too small to notice. Sure, you could say this can be used to overdramatized but graphs would either have to be gigantic or the same size and the information may be too small to notice, once again.
I asume the video you mean is "Shut up about the y-axis. It shouldn’t always start at zero.". I didn't knew it, thanks, it's interesting.
I agree that not all charts should start at zero (body temperature, as they mentioned, is a great example), however , in this particular case the graph is misleading giving the impresion that the average male has more than double in size between 1871 and 1975, when the difference is a little less than 10 cm or about a 6% increase.
Yes, and the models further exaggerate the difference. Though I somewhat agree with the guy above, that specific graph is pretty misleading.
I agree
Also, people tend to look for surface area more then height
When a man is double the height, his area is 4 times larger.
This was a prime exemple of what a bad graphic is.
banpiro I agree, I understand that it's not a total rule but with the image of differently sized men the ratios are kinda misleading
Randy Newman had a great song about short people. Lol.
My Dad was tall.. his Dad was short. My mother’s father was tall. That begat three tall children. I was 5’’8 at my tallest. My older brothers are still 6’6 and 6’4. I believe the nutrition idea because we ate much better than most of our neighbors. Meat chicken every night during the fifties and sixties. Our neighbors ate beans and veggies.
It wasn’t an economical thing. We just spent our monies differently.
My son is 6’4 and cousins are 6’2 and 6’3. Genetics and lifestyle differences.
well it is true us larger people (6"6) to have more problems like knee and back pain as well as high risk of heart disease
same
Dojocho we have them because we use them more and in a longer range of motion
think you need to pick up a...bag of garbage we will say wher as i almost have to bend 90 degrees because my height being 6"6 someone who is like 5"5 could just reach while standing up straight
I'm 5'10 (I'm a female though if it makes a difference) I have hypermobility and arthritis. My joints dislocate sometimes and when I was younger I was clumsy. The weather really isn't that much better "up there"
mandygurl2341 Me too. Marfan Syndrome chick here. Got all sorts of health problems. Being tall comes with drawbacks sometimes.
Don't forget the brain cell loss because of door... wait what was I talking about?
I don't know about pushing the "Healthcare" line. My grandfather was an ANZAC in WW I and he always said you could see the Aussies easily in English crowds. He said, on average, about a head taller than the English. Diet and exercise probably had more to do with it.
doors were small during those times because it was extremely expensive to build a large doorway during those times
star heaven
That makes no sense. A larger doorway (an open void, that may or may not need an actual door), would require fewer building materials. In addition, said materials (wood, stone, plaster, concrete), would cost more than an opening, or even a simple wooden door.
its not the material that brought the price up ,building a wall is cheap .
a large opening in a wall could collapse from the sides under the pressure because its not being supported ,so extra care had to be added to make sure that doesn't happen bring the price up ,its only in the gothic era where people rediscoved ways to support buildings without thick flat walls to hold them up ,
Small size doors found on islands which were constantly under attack from invaders were a defensive measure. As the person enters the house bending down he could easily be dispatched with a blow to the head from someone inside. This was carried over to other areas which were under constant attack from invasion forces.
this channel is the best
the Tehuelches, natives from patagonia in Argentina are said to have had an averange height of 2 meters back in 1500
Even myself being 58 years old find a difference today, I can remember when seeing someone 6ft 4 was rare and you stared at someone when you seen someone so tall because it was rare. Nowadays seems most teenagers are close to that height. At least 6ft.
igf-1 (insulin like growth factor 1) found in dairy foods may play a part in growth spurts.
I'm about 6ft-Even. My brothers, Kjell III (chell, 6'1") and Eric (air-ick, 6'2") (all three of us are ½ Norwegian, ¼ German and ¼ Irish. Our Father (Kjell Jr. RIP) was 6'3" while our Mom peaked at 5'9". She's 5'8" now
simon looks better with the beard seeing im used to seeing it on his newer videos p.s. i like these videos
Nope, country with the tallest people in the world is Bosnia & Herzegovina with 183,9cm for men and 171cm for women, followed by Montenegro, Netherlands is 3rd.
Can you make a video on the determination of dexterity ie what makes someone right or left handed. Thx
The US has had a huge influx of immigrants from Central and South America. This has effected our recorded heights.
I think that the multiethnic nature of the US might have a little bit more to do with it, don't you?
The influx of Latinos into the US for 50+ years you mean?
yes
Ed Crichton you mean the Mexicans that were here before it was the United States that lived here for centuries?
J. Rose by mexicans do you mean native americans? and btw centuries ago isn't exactly equivalent because this is a modern country with laws, borders, social programs, etc. Unfettered immigration is a problem when you don't give periods of time for the population to settle and mix.
Japanese are getting significantly taller too, and they are not multi-ethnic at all. A lot of my students in junior high in Japan are taller than I am (and I'm a white dude).
Growing up in a family in the 1960s and 70s relatively poor all five siblings were over 5'6" for girls and 5'11" for boys with no obesity. Even though mostly pasta and potatoe and cheap white bread and rice filled the meals. Very little junk food. maybe there is the difference.
I read a story about some Asian men who were prisoners of U.S. during WW2. They grew a couple of inches as American prisoners because they got better nutrition as prisoners than they had received as free men in their own country. After the war, their families expected to see them gaunt and emaciated as that was the fate of prisoners in their own country, but were of course very much surprised to see them healthier and taller than they had ever been.
One reason for the false impression that people today are much taller than in medieval times (other than malnutrition in some medieval periods) is due to the fact that people (typically nobles) who wore armor in those days often went through a few suits of armor as they grew. This was to train them to wear armor as adults in battle. These training suits never saw battle, so they didn't get lost or destroyed on the battlefield, unlike adult armor which was typically used until it was useless. So basically we ended up with a disproportionate number of suits of short teenager armor which many people mistook for adult armor and which skewed our perception of average heights in those days.
It is very noticeable, I find, that children of immigrants from the Far East who were born and raised in Europe grow much, much taller than their parents. You'd think genes have a lot to do with height, but it really seems to be just nutrition and other environmental parameters.
(rolls eyes) Adults don't grow in height(except for a very rare number of people, who have a genetic mutation which causes them to keep growing until it kills them).And archeologists didn't come to their conclusions about the average height of people from the Middle Ages by looking at armor...they drew them by examining ACTUAL SKELETONS of people from the Middle Ages.Everyone knows this. You're not fooling anyone.
How can you grow a couple of inches in only a couples years in POW. Your developmental years of good habits and nutrition effects potential height. Could those POWs have been young teens? They may not have completed growing, so when they returned home, they look taller. North Koreans who went through famine and malnutrition are stunted. When they defect to S.Korea or america, they don't get an automatic growth spurt?
I'm chinese, grew up in canada. I'm dramatically taller than my cousins in China. They claim I'm 6 feet. I'm not, but the difference is quite stark.
Gewgulkan Suhckitt WOW!
You must have a pretty big ass which enables you to pull so many bullshit stories out of it!
What do you do?
Do you have fantasies that you can not distinguish from reality?
If so, you seriously need some professional help, and you should seek it!
Are you able to come up with all of these "facts" naturally, or do you consume hallucinogenic drugs to accomplish your delusional state?
When you typed in your comment did you think that people would read it and then say "That Gewgulkan Suhckitt certainly knows a lot of facts that no one else on Earth seems to know, he must be super intelligent!"
If so, you have failed!
legion1a
I knew a man who went to war in WW2 at 5'2". The Army fed him so much better that he ate at home that after two years he returned home 6" taller at 6'2". He said he had to convince his mom that he was her son.
1) Reads the title
2) shouts out: "Food!"
3) watch the video
4)...
...so what you're saying is that us being treated by slaves by corporations and our bosses is what's keeping us short.
>:(
S.C. Beatty I don't think that corporations see people as... well, people.
If they did, they wouldn't be machines.
Rise up comrade. Nothing can stand against a united proletariat. ☭
S.C. Beatty Thanks! =] You, too.
I took German in school, and my 7th and 8th grade German teacher was Dutch. She looked like an NFL linebacker, and had a beehive hairdo like Marge Simpson. Lolz.
im an american. i'm 5'7 (female) and most of my friends and people i work with (female) are about my height or TALLER. I am by no means considered tall, buy rather average. Most men however seem to be about 5'10.(although they will say they are taller) i really think the 5'4 average for women is due to some very short people bringing the average down.
The fashion industry has something to do with that, I think; they barely acknowledge women your height, and almost completely ignore women of my height (six feet tall).
@@jenniferbrewer5370 everything fits me legnth wise. which is why i say 5'7 is the real average. that said ive been a size nine since high school (im 41) and now as people get larger im having to go drastically down in size. im now about a 5 in most stores.
As a Catalan in my middle forties I cannot agree more, because I see everyday what a good healthy food and universal care is doing for our offspring. Our grandparents after civil war , the average poor republican population mainly ,suffer of malnutrition and lack of vitamins anf food, nearly to starvation. It was "normal" to find women of 1'50 cm and men of 1'60 cm at much. I always thought "Mediterraneans" were shorter than Duchts. When you go to The Netherlands everybody is huge! But now a days our children is like 20cm taller than our grandparents. This change of hight is not related to genetics but to stable access to healthy food and way of live and universal health care. Our children are growing healthier and taller.
The average US height decline is probably because of the large influx of Hispanic people from Central and South America knocking down the average.
Champion monologuing, Simon Whistler. Kudos!
That is a terrible graph. To the casual viewer it might seem that we have almost doubled in height in a century while the actual change is closer to 5%. Setting the y axis origin to an unmarked value (I guess around 158cm) grossly exaggerates the change. If this were redrawn with the origin at 0 the change would be hardly noticeable.
As with many of the 'Today I Found Out' videos there is nothing surprising here; better health and nutrition leads to taller, healthier people.
Paul Morris you are absolutely right its deceptive
Paul Morris the origin should specify the value but it shouldn't be 0, or you'd have have a graph with mainly white space
I've been 5'10" since I was 13. I was diagnosed with arthritis at age 19!! I'm now 57 and I can't take any meds for the arthritis.😭😭😭😭
French men wire high heels due to worries about being short!?!? I really didn't see that coming
I'm the shortest full grown woman in my family at 5ft 8 in. My husband is 6 ft 3 in and my brother is right about 7 feet tall. My 13 yr old nephew has already out grown me at about 6 foot. I expect himbti get at least as tall as my brother who is not ecen the tallest man born in my family that was an ancestor named Rose who was over 7 ft when he was full grown. I think nutrition does have a lot to do with it but my grandfather grew up during the great depression and made it to 6 feet 4 so I also believe genetics plays a very big role in it. And also taller people tend to marry each other there fore having taller offspring.
So, im from 1900???
What the fack am i doing in the future
No. Your from the fourth era. Get it together man 😔
😂😂😂😂😂
I remember reading a fascinating book on the early angles and Saxons before 1066, and the skeletons they have dug up. Apparently the average height was over 6', then people started shrinking as the food sources weren't as nutritious due to famines and plagues etc, and only recently are they starting to regrow as better food is available. Made for interesting reading.
History isn't limited to European and US history
correct, but statistics generally are.
glorificusbarryhex True but there I would guess there are more written well kept historical records like this in Europe and it's surrounding areas than in places like India or Korea (where they didn't have a written alphabet until the 1400's). it's not simply about Europe nor the US but about well kept and readily accessible historical records.
But there are written records from places outside of Europe and China. And this video really only focuses on records from the last 400 years or so. A time period where multiple cultures across the world kept written records, from economic to regular gossip. This video pretty much ignored readily available resources to give a biased view on history. It's just lazy research.
glorificusbarryhex Lazy research? This is TH-cam and he's British. "Research" is not what TH-camrs do, it's what scholars and scientists do. And, what's wrong with a person doing a video on what they want? it's what literally all TH-camrs do. Want something not about primarily European people do a search for it.
Laura S. This is supposed to be an informative video and this channel is supposed to supply content that most people don't know about or provide a forum for learning. So this channel isn't even doing the bare minimum of what it's positioned itself to be.
The average Homo Erectus (ca. 250,000 BC) averaged about 5'9". Cro Magnons (ca. 35,000 BC) were about the same heifgt, as were people in the early stone age. We started getting shorter with crowding and relying on agriculture, which is prone to famine due to weather and distribution bottlenecks. Take a look at a 5'2" Chinese grandmother from the post WW II era standing proudly next to her 6'2" grandson (who graduated from the Shau Lin Monastery).