"God, how men chopped!" - Do you know such an exclamation? Interestingly, does the male population really become lower, or does it simply seem to have grown and climbed on heels to ladies? We will talk about what a man of average height is and what exactly determines this indicator in the world and in our country in the article.
Is growth an indicator of sexuality?
Men of average height, probably with some envy glance at tall and therefore such noticeable friends. “Eh, I would have his height! I would conquer all the beauties! ” They say something like this. And at the same time they are mistaken.
In Switzerland, researchers drew attention to the fact that particularly pronounced sexuality is inherent in men of average height. It is interesting that the lower the representative of the stronger sex, the higher its libido.
More than 500 men between the ages of 20 and 54 took part in the experiment, as a result of which it was found that everyone with a height not exceeding 170 cm showed themselves to be strong, passionate and tender partners. By the way, ladies noticed these qualities almost from the first minutes of acquaintance.
Scientists explained this by the fact that a man of average height and below, as a rule, has complexes associated with this indicator, so he is trying to prove himself, to establish himself in various areas, which, in particular, include sex.
Is a man’s growth a guarantee of his success?
In our ancestors, the growth of a man was directly related to his health, strength and ability to feed and protect his family, so there is nothing surprising in the desire of modern ladies to see a tall man next to them. The main instinct is guilty of this.
And modern tall men, by the way, have not only this advantage. As proven, they tend to have a higher average income and are easier to move up the career ladder. Scientists attribute this to high self-esteem and leadership qualities in such people.
It would seem that there should be many children in large representatives of the stronger sex in all respects. But no! As the Dutch scientists found out, the most prolific is a man of average height. By the way, he gets married earlier and has a first child. So, despite the love of beautiful ladies for tall partners, they somehow start a family with a man of average height. You can’t argue with statistics!
So how tall is a man considered average?
The growth of each of us depends on a combination of 180 genes and, of course, on the lifestyle of the mother who carried the child. And then - and from the lifestyle of man himself. Once the average height of a European man was 160 cm, and our contemporaries stretched out to an average of 176 cm.
Over time, the concept of how average a man is in the world has changed a lot. In knightly armor, which are stored in museums in Rome, now can only fit a teenager. Since the growth of these soldiers did not exceed 167 cm.
European growth increased by 11 cm
What exactly affects the number of centimeters from the top of the head to the heels of each person? Data on the dependence of growth rates on race are no secret. Asians are short people. Their growth averages 165 cm, and Europeans grow to 178 cm.
But not only genetic heredity predetermines these parameters. In prosperous countries, people are taller than where the economy drags a miserable existence. After all, both the quality of the foods eaten, and their variety, and the absence of the need to work hard, along with well-developed healthcare, help a person to become higher. This is probably why, until recently, the average height of a man from America was the largest in the world.
According to researchers, the body length of an average man has increased from the end of the 19th century by 11 cm - from 167 cm to 178 cm.
War is not a hindrance to growth
But, by the way, despite the evidence of the dependence of growth on living standards, it turned out that during the two world wars and the Great Depression experienced by mankind, the average body length of people continued to increase. It would seem that increasing poverty, lack of food and adversity should have affected the indicator described, but no, this did not happen. On the contrary, a man of average height was getting taller!
Scientists are trying to explain this phenomenon by the fact that people in such periods tried to have fewer children in the family, which means that the number of eaters decreased and the quality of food came to a relative norm, and the child grew up unhindered. Although, of course, such arguments do not look convincing. Since food during the war could hardly be brought back to normal. So this fact is still a mystery, by the way, as is the increase in the number of born boys before each war.
Perfect partner growth
But be that as it may, the average growth of a European in recent years has increased significantly. In this regard, obviously, the concept of attractiveness has changed.
Researchers from the Netherlands conducted a survey of 50,000 young men and women about how ideally their partner's growth should be, and at the same time about how satisfied they are with their growth. It turned out that men seem especially attractive to men above them by 20 cm, but the stronger sex will prefer a lady who does not reach their height of only 7.5 cm.
On average, according to the conclusions of scientists from the University of Groningen, the ideal (that is desirable for most of the respondents) average height of a man and a woman in a pair is 190 cm and 175 cm. Yes, high preferences in height!
The difference in growth between rich and poor has decreased
Scrupulous scientists from the UK for thirty years have been trying to determine the relationship between material well-being and the anatomical features of each of the people. Now they claim that over 300 years the average height of a man in the world has increased more than in the previous few thousand years. So, they emphasize, such a jump indicates a direct connection of this indicator with material well-being.
So, even 200 years ago, representatives of aristocratic families were taller than commoners. At the beginning of the century before last, for example, a 14-year-old teenager from the proletarians did not exceed 130 cm, and his peer from a wealthy family was about 25 cm higher. For our contemporaries, the difference in growth between rich and poor is 7 cm, which confirms the overall increase in well-being and the level of medicine.
What are the average growth indicators talking about?
The conclusion that it is the average population growth that is the most accurate indicator of the health of a nation is, of course, true, but genetics cannot be discounted. It is difficult to classify the countries of Africa as economically prosperous, but at the same time, in the Masai, Tutsi, and Niloth tribes, men are stretched to 185 cm, or even 2 m, while pygmies do not grow above 150 cm.
True, in a prosperous Holland the average height of a man is 188 cm. Yes, and the fair sex of this country can hardly be called “inches” - they grow up to 177 cm. In Sweden, Denmark and Norway, these showed only a centimeter.
What is the growth of Russian, Ukrainian and Belarusian men
Full confirmation of the idea of a direct connection between the parameters of the average growth of a nation and its economic well-being is also noticeable among representatives of the Slavs, by the will of fate living in different countries today.
So, the growth of the average man, a resident of the USSR, in the 70s was 168 cm. And in the 80s, the male population grew by 3 cm.
At the beginning of market reforms, the average Russian reached about 176 cm. The average height of a man in Ukraine is not very different from him - he is 175.3 cm.
In 1997, Belarusians were slightly lower. They grew to 174 cm. But in 2008, according to the research of the Department of Anthropology, 18-year-old boys had already grown 177 cm. According to studies, since 1925 this nation has grown by 15 cm, which, you see, is very good. True, such a process of rapid growth, once called acceleration, has already stopped. This is especially noticeable among urban residents, while in rural areas it is still ongoing.
The average height of men in Belarus, Ukraine, Russia, as in other states, of course, is closely dependent on many indicators. By the way, it was noticed that this can be connected with the level of education of the mother. After all, it is she who organizes the diet and daily routine of her child, which cannot but affect whether the boy will subsequently be a sufficiently tall man.
The average height of a man is a sign of what?
So, as you probably already understood, the average growth of residents of different countries and nations may vary. And the influence of many factors can contribute to this:
- genetics (for example, Asians belong to low-growing nations, and the Scandinavians have always been tall);
- the level of welfare in the state (in successful Japan and China - countries originally inhabited by small residents, recent growth has increased by almost 12 cm, and the average Japanese is now almost as tall as an American);
- It is important that a specific person lives in the city or in the countryside;
- how a child was born and raised by a mother;
- Does the person have chronic diseases, which, by the way, are able to influence growth, subtracting an average of 3 cm.
A man of average height in different countries can turn out to be 165 cm and 184 cm in height, while being considered among fellow citizens a typical representative of the stronger sex that does not particularly stand out in this parameter.