Scientists have long recognized that there is a close association between the height of a population and its nutritional status, and by the end of the nineteenth century governments were coming under increasing pressure to measure their citizens as a means of determining that status. Many have done so in the twentieth century, as height and weight statistics have played an ever increasing role in health assessment programs (Tanner 1981). This chapter employs the data generated thus far to construct a general picture of changes in height and nutritional status in various countries during the course of the twentieth century.

The studies on which this chapter is based have taken a variety of forms. Most of the information about changes in average heights has been derived from school surveys, but a great deal of data on adult heights is also available. Many of these data have been derived from military recruiting records and are primarily concerned with the heights of adult men (Floud, Wachter, and Gregory 1990).

In addition, a number of investigations have focused on changes in the timing of growth spurts and in overall rates of growth. These investigations have tended to focus on the age of peak-height velocity (PHV) in both males and females and the onset of menarche in girls (e.g., Matsumoto et al. 1980; Matsumoto 1982; Danker-Hopfe 1986). Some observers have also examined changes in the relative dimensions of different parts of the body, such as leg length and sitting height (Himes 1979; Tanner et al. 1982).