http://www.nature.com/pr/journal/v73/n3/full/pr2012189a.htmlQuote:
In The Netherlands, people have been getting taller since 1858 (2,5). At that time, conscripts were an average of 163 cm. This indicates a height gain of 21 cm over a period of 140 y. In The Netherlands, as in most Northern European countries, the upward trend is slowing down significantly (2,6), and it even appears to be reversing in the United States (7).
The analysis sample included 5,811 boys and 6,194 girls. Height by age was the same as in 1997. Mean final height was 183.8 cm (SD = 7.1 cm) in boys and 170.7 cm (SD = 6.3 cm) in girls. The educational levels of both children and their parents are positively correlated with mean height. Since 1997, differences between geographical regions have decreased but not vanished, with the northern population being the tallest.
There are also PDF files posted by a member. Let me find them (here they are):
http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/nhsr/nhsr010.pdf#page=15 whit use men between 20 and 39 years old
http://www.ssb.no/a/english/yearbook/tab/tab-108.html Norwegian young males
http://www.dst.dk/pukora/epub/upload/17959/pop.pdf#page=34young danish males
Since most people are Americans here, lets see some cold hard facts:
USA white from 20-39, average height is 178.9
USA White from 40-59, average is 178.0
(This is not really statistically significant, since standard error for both is 0.3, so max standard error is 0.6)
At most, the younger generation grew taller, like (what?) 0.9 cm. That's a lot.
non Hispanic blacks:
from 20-39, average height is 178.
40-59, average height is 177.4 (standard error max of 0.6 cm so it may be stastically insignificant).
Do the same for the other two PDF files.
I repeat: the younger generation IS NOT ON AVERAGE getting taller.
I throw forth this hypothesis by my friend: The tall are getting taller, the short are getting shorter. So we feel shorter, because we kinda ignore the short people and just look at the tall ones, and thus feel all insecure over it, and have a distorted idea of what is the average height of young people vs older people (40-59)
I repeat again the younger genereation height is similar to the older generation, if we define it as 20-39 versus 40-59.
I have posited some possible explanations for this, namely that US was already more or less industrialised in the 1960s (past the WW 2), so the guys who are 50+ year old now, are as tall as younger generation