New research shows that Americans are coming up short, but not in terms of money or lifestyle. Our growing problem is with our height.
The study, conducted by the University of Munich and Princeton University, found that the United States had the shortest population in the industrialized world, and the reason may have to do with the way people live.
America’s first president, George Washington, stood a commanding 6-foot-2. In Washington’s day, our country’s residents were the tallest in the world.
“It’s well known that the Americans held the title for 200 years,” said University of Munich professor John Komlos. “Ever since the colonial times, the Americans were the tallest.”
Today the Netherlands towers above the rest of the world as the tallest country, with an average height of 6-foot 1, without the wooden shoes. In 1850, Americans were two inches taller than the Dutch.
In Denmark, men average 6 feet in height, a couple of inches taller than the American male average of 5-foot-10.