The average Dutch man is 181.2 cm and the average Dutch woman 167.9 cm — first among 200 countries for both sexes, about 12 cm (men) and 11 cm (women) above the world average. Among 19-year-olds in 2019 the figures were 183.8 cm and 170.4 cm.
It wasn't always so. In the mid-1800s the Dutch were among Europe's shorter populations — conscripts averaged around 165 cm. Heights rose almost continuously through the 20th century, and in a study of cohorts born 1896–1996 the tallest people of the century were Dutch men born in its last quarter. [1] Genes don't change that fast — conditions do.
What we know: childhood nutrition (dairy is a big part of the Dutch diet), health and hygiene (fewer childhood infections), relatively equal incomes (average height is sensitive to how the poorest children grow), and possibly natural selection: in a study of about 94,000 people in the northern Netherlands, taller men born 1935–1967 had more children on average. The study involved no genetic testing, and its authors see selection as a factor alongside good living conditions. [2] Height is highly heritable within a population — about 80% in twin studies [3] — but that figure says nothing about why countries differ.
The challengers. Among 19-year-old men: Netherlands 183.8, Montenegro 183.3, Estonia 182.8, Bosnia and Herzegovina 182.5, Iceland 182.1 cm. Young Montenegrin men are 4 cm taller than all Montenegrin men; in the Netherlands the gap is 2.5 cm — the Balkans are catching up.
👉 Where would you rank in the Netherlands? heightscore.com/en
Method: country means from NCD-RisC age-19 height series by birth cohort, weighted with UN WPP 2024 age structure, with mild shrinkage after 40. See heightscore.com/en/methodology.
Sources
- NCD Risk Factor Collaboration (2016). A century of trends in adult human height. eLife 5:e13410. Mid-1800s: Dutch conscript records 1830–1913, University of Groningen study.
- Stulp G., Barrett L., Tropf F. C., Mills M. (2015). Does natural selection favour taller stature among the tallest people on earth? Proceedings of the Royal Society B 282: 20150211.
- Silventoinen K. et al. (2003). Heritability of adult body height: a comparative study of twin cohorts in eight countries. Twin Research 6(5).