Claims about tall Dutch people

The Guardian reports:

Researchers led by Gert Stulp, a specialist in population health at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, combed a Dutch database for clues.

Called LifeLines, the record contains exhaustive detail about the lives and health of more than 94,500 people who lived in the northern the Netherlands from 1935 to 1967. In this three-decade snapshot, the people who had the most children were tall men, and women of average height, the team found.

For example, the most fertile men were seven centimetres above the average height. Statistically, they had 0.24 more children on average than the least fertile men, who were about 14 cm below the average height.

Compared to counterparts in other countries where they often tended to have fewer children, taller women also reproduced more in the Netherlands. Many postponed having children until after their studies, but once they forged a successful relationship, often had a large family.

…Stulp pointed to figures showing that, in the United States, shorter women and men of average height have the most reproductive success.

The short piece is interesting throughout, and for the pointer I thank John B. Chilton.  And elsewhere on the height research front, the Indian height advantage, relative to Africa, exists only for firstborn sons.

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