Why are Americans getting shorter?An article recently published by the US media "The Washington Post" raised a question that made many young Americans feel "heart-piercing".
According to official statistics in 2023, the average height of young people in the United States is 1.7 meters, of which, men are about 1.75 meters tall, while women are about 1.62 meters tall.
At first glance, such a height may not be too short in a crowd, but compared to the previous "altitude", today's young Americans are indeed far less tall than their parents.
The height problem of young people in the United States.
You must know that when the United States was founded, the average height of men was among the top in Europe and the United States, nearly 8 centimeters taller than the Dutch, ranking 36th in the world, but now it has dropped to 47th, and the Dutch, who are now on average 1.8 meters tall, are far behind.
So, why are Americans getting shorter and shorter?First of all, there are self-factors. From a health point of view, the human body will promote the growth of height if the intake of adequate and balanced nutrients will promote the growth of height, especially in the early childhood, nutrition must keep up.
But now, the average height of American children has also begun to decline, and correspondingly, the obesity rate among adolescents is increasing, which actually shows that there is a certain problem with the eating habits of American teenagers.
A large amount of fast food has poured into the American market, and junk food has occupied the dining tables of American families, resulting in insufficient intake of vegetables, fruits, eggs and milk, which naturally affects the height of young people over time.
American-style fast food. In addition to the young people, many office workers do not have time to enjoy a healthy and balanced meal under the fast-paced work and life, so they can only choose some cheap and high-calorie fast food, and deal with two mouthfuls casually.
Over time, not only has the average height of the U.S. population decreased, but the average weight has also decreased significantly**. This phenomenon seems to be a social problem caused by eating habits, but in essence it is actually an economic problem.
To put it bluntly, although the United States is the world's largest economy and its per capita GDP ranks first in the world, its rapid economic growth has not led to the simultaneous development of social production, but has widened the gap between the rich and the poor, and most of the money has gone into the pockets of a few.
That's why, there are so many multimillionaires and billionaires in the United States, but there are still so many homeless people on the streets of New York, and there is no place to live.
American street vagrants.
If that's not intuitive enough, the following set of data is telling.
As of 2022, there are about 735 billionaires in the United States, with total assets of about 4., according to a statistic released by the U.S. Survey**$5 trillion, remember, that's the wealth owned by the 1% of people who stand at the top of the pyramid in the United States.
And the bottom 50% of the average household in the United States, the total population of these households is about 16.5 billion, while their total assets add up to only 4$1 trillion.
In other words, more than 700 billionaires have more assets than the entire United StatesTotal assets owned by 6.5 billion people, what is this concept?Such an astonishing gap between the rich and the poor naturally leads to an imbalance in social and economic development.
U.S. Economy. The imbalance in socio-economic development is also reflected in various aspects, such as insufficient medical resources, unemployment rate** and so on. According to relevant statistics, about 30 million people in the United States do not have health insurance, and 5.8 million people are unemployed.
This "pyramid" shaped social wealth structure has led to a large number of high-quality resources in society, such as food, education, medical care, etc., concentrated in the hands of a small number of super-rich, and a considerable number of Americans are struggling to make ends meet.
In addition to economic issues, immigration is often seen as a major factor in the decline in average height in the United States. For example, Americans are stereotyped as having people of other races, especially Asians, be much shorter than Americans.
According to the statistics of the U.S. Bureau of Labor, it is true that since 1994, the immigrant population in the United States has increased significantly, accounting for about half of the total labor force. From this perspective, the issue of immigration also seems to be one of the factors influencing the decrease in the average height of Americans.
Central American migrants poured into the U.S.-Mexico border.
But this explanation is obviously not objective and incomplete enough, because the real watershed moment in the shortening of Americans was actually in 1980.
At that time, almost after the 200th anniversary of the founding of the United States, the economy developed rapidly, and it had absolute superiority in the global military, scientific and technological fields, and even successfully "collapsed" the Soviet Union in the next 10 years.
So why is it that in this heyday, the average height in the United States has become shorter and shorter?From 1900 to 1980, the United States experienced World War I, World War II, the Korean War, the Vietnam War, and then launched the Afghanistan War in 2001.
Although the continental United States is far away from the battlefield and basically does not suffer much loss, the consumption of the population is huge in one war after another, even if the birth rate is very high, it is difficult to ensure that the physical fitness of newborns is high enough.
Newborns in the United States.
Clause. Second, after the Great Depression of capitalism, "neoliberalism" swept the world, theoretically to "make the economy freer", but in reality it is a more greedy capitalism, so that capital always occupies a dominant position in the market, rejecting the intervention of state forces.
This kind of economic policy, which is highly regarded by the West, has actually exacerbated a series of problems, such as the unequal distribution of social resources and the excessively large gap between the rich and the poor. That's why, the overall economic data of the United States** and the physical fitness of the people have declined.
Of course, this situation in the United States is not unique, and Japan is in a similar situation with the United States. According to the Public Relations Department of the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology, in 2021, the average height of young men in Japan was 1708 centimeters, while in 1994, the figure was still 1709 cm.
In other words, in the last 30 years, the average height of Japanese people has not increased at all, but has decreased by 01 cm.
Japan's Population Problem.
However, compared with the United States, the Japanese are not so difficult to accept the height of 1.7 meters, because this can already be regarded as the "ceiling" of Japanese men's height.
Going back to earlier historical periods, during the Jomon period, the average height of men in Japan was 158 centimeters and that of women was about 149 centimeters, and in the Edo period, this set of figures dropped to 155 centimeters and 145 centimeters, respectively.
First, because Japan is an island country, it is itself lacking in resources, and basically relies on pickled vegetables and some fish for food, and is not good at cooking cooked food, so its living standard is poor. The second is that the situation was relatively turbulent at that time, samurai and shogunates began to emerge, and the lives of ordinary people became more and more difficult.
At that time, there was such a record of Japan in the "Hanshu Geographical Chronicles": "There are Japanese people in the Lelang Sea, divided into more than 100 countries, and they come to offer them at the age of the year." It probably means that there is a group of Japanese people on the other side of the Lelang Sea, divided into hundreds of countries, who come to offer treasures every year.
Ancient Japanese period.
And this "Wa" is the name of Japan in ancient times, and it also means short. At that time, the average height of men in the Han Dynasty was about 168cm, using "倭" to describe Japan, it can be seen that the Japanese were indeed relatively short compared with the Central Plains people at that time.
In fact, since the beginning of modern times, due to the improvement of economic conditions and the convenience of transportation, Japan has become more and more frequent in communication with the outside world, and the influx of foreign food and goods has greatly enriched the daily life of the Japanese people, and the quality of food has also improved.
However, when the economic bubble was burst, Japan fell into the "disappearing 30 years", economic growth stagnated, social production was affected, and it was during this period that the average height of Japanese people began to decline again.
In fact, when it comes to this, it is basically clear why the average height of Americans and Japanese is getting shorter and shorter, and the economic issue is an important factor. Of course, this does not necessarily mean that height and economy can be completely equated, but that among the many factors that affect the average height of the people, economic problems are the most fundamental and common problems.
Japan's economic situation.
Because by observing the fluctuation of the average national height curve of a country, we can basically see the quality of life of the country's residents and whether the social and economic development is balanced. Even the United States, which ranks first in the world in terms of economic development, has been exposed to this problem.