14 DAY TRIAL // The average European man can take pride in being far more capable of reaching upper shelves than his forefathers were.
Thus, a new paper published in yesterday's issue of the journal Oxford Economic Papers shows that, between the mid-nineteenth century and the 1980s, the run-off-the-mill European male came to be roughly 11 centimeters (4.33 inches) taller than he used to be.
Oddly enough, this growth mostly took place in the period spanning the two World Wars and the Great Depression, sources say.
Researchers suspect that the increase in the average European man's height was largely due to a drop in infant mortality.
“The evidence suggests that the improving disease environment, as reflected in the fall in infant mortality, is the single most important factor driving the increase in height,” Professor Timothy J. Hatton explains.
It is also possible that men grew taller because families started having fewer children. By the looks of it, small family sizes have many times been linked to an increase in height.
Lastly, better living conditions and improved health care are believed to have contributed to this phenomenon.