There was a time you would find most American children outgrowing their parents, but that doesn’t seem to be the case now. Data collected on the average height of Americans, it shows that in early 20 century, it was typical to see children and adolescent grow, say about, one and half inch taller after every 20 years. Recent measurements however suggest something different – the average height has somewhat hit the ceiling. An analysis of data retrieved from the Centers for Disease Control indicates that in the past 50 years, the average American height has remained about 5 feet 9 inches in case of men and for women, it has been 5 feet 4 inches.
An anthropologist at Northwestern University, William Leonard says that there has been insignificant change in height of adult over the last generation noting that people in the USA have maxed out when it comes to stature.
Average Height for Women in the USA
In the United States, the average height in regard to women aged about 20 or more is pretty under 5 foot 4 inches and this translates to about 63.7 inches. When you talk of average height for men in the USA over age of 20, it stands over 5 foot 9 inches which translates to about 69.2 inches.
In the 1960s, the height for women in the ages of 20 to 74 was at 6.1 inches and their weight was about 140.2 pounds. The shape and size of our body have changed over time. Today, the average weight for an American woman is about 168.5 pounds and for man, it is about 195.7 pounds. What we see is that height seems to be increasing at a slow rate when compared to how weight is increasing.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention notes that there has been very minimal increase in average height among the population since 1960s, contrary to what we have seen with weight. In the last 40 years or so, weight has significantly been increasing. Research indicates that potential height has been associated with the nutrition people have during infancy and childhood.
The study has even linked the height of certain populations to the standard of living. Experts are talking about why growth of Americans seems to have hit a ceiling, and while some say it’s because of food and its access, others feel that it’s because of choices of foods that have no sufficient nutrition. Again, immigration of individuals coming from countries known to have shorter stature might also be impacting on the average height of Americans, according to Majid Ezzati who is the Chair of Global Environmental Health at Imperial College London.
An anthropologist, William Leonard feels that we are what we eat. Most Americans are facing few nutritional and health-related stress during their youth. When this is the case, you are able to see increasing growth in height and even size of the population. People tend to grow most during infancy and at time of adolescent. Most Americans have been able to avoid diseases, they have taken sufficient amount of milk and meat at time of their youth to attain their genetic height potentials.
Leonard points out that the average height may have stabilized at just one point, but there are small pockets of populations you may have slight increases, again this is small enough that it doesn’t put any difference in the country’s overall averages.
Average Height of women Across the World
While it may seem that in the USA the height growth rates have slowed, in other parts of the world, it doesn’t seem to be the case. For instance, in countries such as South Korea, a growth spurt is being experienced. Research indicates that in the past century there has been a gain in height for women in South Korea by just under 8 inches.
Data shows that as of 1996, in Guatemala, there was the lowest women average height – standing at about 58.8 inches or 4 feet 9 inches. The height of Guatemalan women was slightly, closely followed by other populations like the Philippines, Bangladesh, as well as the Nepal. In these countries, the average height for woman was around 59.4 inches.
When we look at the tallest women, we see that they are found in countries like Estonia, Netherlands, and Czech Republic. The average height for woman in these countries was recorded at about 5 feet 5 inches, which equates to 66 inches.
Average Height of women in Relation to Weight
Data collected in 2000 indicated that the average BMI or body mass index seen in American women was about 26.5, something considered overweight. There have been incidents where the scales have been tipped, for example, between 1988 and 2008, the average weight among women grew by 15.4 pounds at that timeframe. Again, the growth in average weight among women varied with regions, with New Jersey seeing a 26.2 pounds increase and Wisconsin having only 6.3 pounds increase in the same period.
A healthy BMI is that between 18.5 and 24.9, however, the BMI guideline may not apply for every other individual. People or women who engage in rigorous physical activity, for instance athletes, they may have more weight because of muscle mass. This means that their MBI may be over estimated. Again, older women have more body fat stored in their body than young women, so their BMI may be underestimated. That said, it important to know that not having your weight align with your height may bring about health problems.
Having more weight and not increasing in size may contribute to health problems like stroke, heart disease, high blood pressure, and type 1 diabetes. It may also contribute to sleep apnea, fatty liver, osteoarthritis, and cancer.
Women seen to be overweight or underweight may have issues in times of pregnancy. For example, women having higher BMIs have increased risk of having high blood pressure, gestational diabetes, and preterm birth. Also, being underweight may increase the risk of giving birth to a baby who is of low birth weight. Last but not least, being underweight or overweight is likely to impact fertility meaning that it would be more difficult for a woman to get or sustain pregnancy.
