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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I'm 5'9" and I'm not an extreme outlier in my workplace or social groups - lots of women are around my height, though rarely taller. My sister is an outlier at 5'11".

I don't know who is included in the CDC average but I wonder if it's skewed by an older population (prior generations not as tall + older individuals shrinking).[/quote]

I think you have a good point here. Women under, say, 40, tend to be taller than women in previous generations. They had better nutrition, better health care. Their mothers had better care and advice during pregnancy. For example, earlier generations had mothers who were told to severely restrict food intake during pregnancy: people born to mothers who did that likely never fulfilled their height potential. Another example is smoking. Babies born to mothers who smoked during pregnancy have lower birth weights on average than babies born to mothers who did not smoke. Smoking is far less common now than it was in the 40s, 50s, and 60s.

It would be interesting to see the average height broken down by age groups. I think the average height for 20-30 year olds would be higher than that for 60-70 year olds. [/quote]

Yes people are getting taller due to improved nutrition and also likely selective breeding.

However, in the US, heights have actually plateaued in the last 50 years or so. The average height for 29 year old woman in the US is 163.54 (a little over 5'4"). The average height for a 69 year old woman in the US is 163.58 (also a little over 5'4").

In other countries, heights have changed more dramatically. [b]For instance in South Korea, the average for a 29 year old is almost 5'4" while the average for a 69 year old is under 5'2".
[/b]
But there is no country where the average height of a 29 year old woman is 5'8". Even in Scandinavia and Eastern Europe (which has the tallest women in the world, the average tops out at 5'5" or just shy of 5'6".[/quote]

The South Korea average probably reflects partly that people lose height as they age. What height were the 69 year olds when they were 30?[/quote]

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