South Korean women grew from an average of 142 cm in 1896 to 162 cm a century later, the biggest increase recorded

South Korean women recorded the largest increase in average height during the 20th century, according to a study that compared people born between 1896 and 1996 across 200 countries and territories.

Women born in South Korea in 1896 measured about 142 centimetres on average. A century later, the figure had reached roughly 162 centimetres, an increase of about 20 centimetres. The same research found that Iranian men experienced the next-largest rise, growing 16.5 centimetres on average.

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Being taller is associated with greater longevity and higher educational attainment, as well as higher incomes.

The study, conducted by the NCD Risk Factor Collaboration, reported that greater height is associated with longer life expectancy, higher educational attainment and higher incomes. Dutch men had the highest average height in the comparison, at 1.82 metres, while Latvian women averaged 1.70 metres. At the lower end, men in East Timor averaged 1.60 metres and Guatemalan women 1.49 metres.

Majid Ezzati, a professor at Imperial College London’s School of Public Health and the study’s director, said English-speaking countries, particularly the United States, had lagged behind affluent countries in Europe and the Asia-Pacific region in height gains, partly because of obesity. He said growth patterns are strongly shaped by nutrition and environmental factors, although genes also matter.

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In terms of height gains, English-speaking countries, particularly the United States, lag behind other high-income countries in Europe and the Asia-Pacific region.

A separate comparison cited in the article found that South Korean preschool children were six to seven centimetres taller than children of the same age in North Korea in 1997. By 2002, the difference had grown to about eight centimetres. The article links the contrast to more favourable economic and health conditions in South Korea, which experienced rapid industrial and economic development in the 1990s.

The source text ends while describing the society in which a South Korean woman born in the 1990s grew up.

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The way people grow is strongly influenced by nutrition and environmental factors, although genes also play an important role.