The Netherlands has the world's tallest population, with men averaging 6+ feet and women 5-foot-six. However, in the past few decades, the country has gotten a bit shorter.
"In the course of the last century we have become taller and taller, but since 1980 the growth has stopped," government statisticians said Friday in a report on the findings written in Dutch.
Dutch women born in 2001 are, on average, more than half an inch shorter than those born in 1980, while for men the decline is 0.39 of an inch, or 1 centimeter.
The Washington Post
There are several prevailing theories for the decrease in average height. Shorter population groups have immigrated to the Netherlands; the 2007 financial crisis may have stagnated growth; more people are consuming unhealthy food.
