by Jim Rose in economics

Robert Fogel pioneered the economics of physiology. In particular, using average height to measure living standards since the dawn of the industrial revolution.

Source: Cleo Infra.

The chart shows steady gains in height over the 20th century in the UK. Progress in heights since the mid 20th century in Indonesia. Progress in heights in in Brazil since the 1960s. Japan shot up in terms of height and the lifetime of current Japanese. That’s something I noticed in terms of the height of children parents and grandparents while living there in the 1990s. China is doing well in height too but India is lagging. Even the Philippines is growing taller. This growth in average height suggests that the benefits of economic growth are distributed widely.