For the most part, scientists believed this was due to wealth, a rich diet and quality health care. But a new study suggests that the overall height of Dutch people may actually be human evolution in action. Scientists have identified 180 genes that influence your height.
A land of giants, the Netherlands is the loftiest nation on Earth: the average height of a Dutch man is 182.5cm; a Dutch woman 168.7cm. By comparison their American counterparts measure 177.1cm and 163.5cm respectively. It wasn't always this way.
What height is considered tall in the Netherlands (for both men and women)? Average height in the Netherlands for men is 180cm (5′11″) and 167cm (5′6″) for women. As such, it's reasonable to assume 187cm+ (6′2″+) would be tall for men, and 177cm+ (5′10″+) would be tall for women.
The Dutch were once short
In fact, back in the mid-1800s, along with France and Italy, they were one of the three shortest countries out of the six investigated. From 1820 to 1875 median Dutch male height hovered around 165 centimetres before shooting up more than 15 centimetres over the last 130 years.
The Netherlands is officially the tallest country on planet Earth. For the most part, scientists believed this was due to wealth, a rich diet and quality health care. But a new study suggests that the overall height of Dutch people may actually be human evolution in action.
Ever wondered where the tallest men and women live in the world? Well, the answer is Netherlands. Also called a land of giants, the Netherlands is home to men with an average height of a Dutch man is 182.5 cm (about 6 feet).
Netherlands. Popular belief holds that the Dutch are a mixture of Frisians, Saxons, and Franks. In fact, research has made plausible the contention that the autochthonous inhabitants of the region were a mixture of pre-Germanic and Germanic population groups who in the course of time had converged on the main deltaic…
They are disciplined, conservative, and pay attention to the smallest details. They see themselves as thrifty, hardworking, practical and well organized. They place high value on cleanliness and neatness. At the same time, the Dutch are very private people.
The body weight of the average Dutch adult has increased more rapidly than their body length. Over the past two decades, the average man gained 5.6 kg and the average woman 3.7 kg. The average weight in the adult male population was 84kg in 2011 versus 70 kg in the adult female population.
The word Dutch comes from a Proto-Germanic word meaning “of the people.” It shares a root with the German word Deutsch, which has led to some confusing names. The name Germans call Germany, for example, is Deutschland and the people there Deutsch. Dutch and German are related, after all, both being Germanic languages.
21% of Dutch males taller than 190 cm
In particular, more than one in every five young guys in 2020 stood at 190 cm (approx. 6 feet 2.8 inches) at the very least, and 7% stood at 195 cm (approx. 6 feet 4.7 inches) at the very least. In the 1950s, a Dutch male's size of less than 175 cm was somewhat common.
At just over 6 feet for men and about 5-foot-6 for women, the Dutch are still the world's tallest population.
Studies show that the average height for Dutch men is 1.86 cm (over 6′) whereas an average American is 1.76 cm (5'9”). So why are the Dutch so tall, you ask?
Why are Norwegians so tall? Norwegians are often ranked among some of the tallest people in the world. Experts say natural selection, combined with a good animal protein diet, makes these Nordic locals taller than their counterparts elsewhere in the world.
Compared with the mean UK female face, the mean Dutch female face has as significant differences a greater face length, shorter nasal ridge length, greater nose width, greater nares anteversion, and as highly significant differences greater outer canthal separation and longer palpebral fissure width (Table 2).
It is also not as though all Dutch people look like twins. Historically, Nederlanders were often intermixed with many ethnic groups. According to DNA testing companies, Dutch DNA is considered mainly Germanic French, which seems a broader stroke of DNA than some common and visible Dutch characteristics that I see.
The Dutch: Interesting facts & figures
Statistically, Dutch are among the tallest people in Europe. Eye contact and criticism are to be expected when chatting with a Dutch. The Netherlands has the highest number of part-time workers in the EU (four out of 10 employees). One out of three Dutch belongs to a sports club.
The Dutch generally have longer and broader face structures compared to other Europeans, such as the British. Their noses are also shorter and are slightly turned up at the tip. However, as with any group or ethnicity, these are often generalizations and do not apply to the whole population.
Are the Dutch considered Scandinavian? While Dutch people have several similar character traits to Scandinavians, they are not considered Scandinavian. Instead, they are their own ethnic group. Although the Dutch are not considered Scandinavian, both are included when discussing Germanic ethnicities.
This, together with the growing number of Dutch intelligentsia and the Dutch Golden Age in which Dutch culture, as a whole, gained international prestige, consolidated the Dutch as an ethnic group.
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Latvia is home to the tallest women in the world, figures show. Females born in 1996 in the Baltic state are, on average, 169.80cm — or around 5ft 7in. UK women, for comparison, measure 164.4cm, roughly 5ft 5in.
Is 5 11 short in the Netherlands? Nope, in the netherlands the average is 185 cm for guys so it's 11 cm taller then you are. Now that's not really a big deal. You're in between the small people and the average people and that isn't that short really.