Human height depends on gender, nationality, environmental conditions and health status. On average, all over the world, the height of people is 165 centimeters, but in different parts of the world the figures can vary by several tens of centimeters. In addition, averages change over time.
Average human height
All people belong to the same species, and they are characterized by approximately the same size, fluctuating within a certain norm. The average height of a person in our time is 165 centimeters: this means that if you take the height of all people living on the planet, regardless of their gender, nationality, health status and other factors, and calculate the arithmetic mean, you get such a figure.
But in fact, growth depends on many factors, the same people do not exist. So, gender has a great influence on body size: men are on average 10-20 centimeters taller than women. Long processes of evolution and adaptation of races to certain conditions have led to the fact that different races and nationalities have different heights. Thus, the average height of the Chinese is 160 centimeters: for men - 165, and for women - 155. For Europeans, these figures are higher: about 170 centimeters on average. And even between different nations, you can find differences: for example, the Dutch are considered one of the tallest in Europe: in the Netherlands, the average height of men is as much as 185 centimeters, and women - 170.
Human growth also depends on environmental conditions. Scientists believe that due to improved quality of life, nutritious nutrition, advanced medicine, genetic progress and other factors, the average human height has grown significantly over the past several hundred years. Two hundred years ago, it was 10 centimeters smaller than it is now. Although in ancient times people were about the same as they are now - the decline began in the Middle Ages. Perhaps in the future, the average height of people will also change, but it is not yet known in which direction.
Growth deviations from the norm
For certain reasons, a person may have significant deviations from the average height or norm - by several tens of centimeters. For example, on the banks of the Yenisei, there is a nationality with the smallest average height in Eurasia - 140 centimeters. In China, in the past, there was a village with several hundred inhabitants who were related to each other: their height averaged 110-120 centimeters. But the lowest people in the history of mankind were representatives of the Onge tribe, who lived in the Andaman Islands: they rarely grew taller than 110 centimeters.
With an increased level of somatropic hormone, the disease of gigantism develops - people with this disease can reach more than 200 centimeters in height, and also have impaired body proportions. But there are also healthy people with the same height: the Guinness Book of Records recorded such indicators as 272 and 257 centimeters for men and 232 and 227 for women.
