--- title: Americans are Shrinking Compared to Other Nationalities description: Americans have, on average, become shorter, compared to their peers around the globe, a new study has found canonical: https://time.com/4423589/americans-shorter-new-height-study/ author: Katie Reilly article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-07-26T12:09:17.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-22T23:32:43.835Z article:section: Health og:title: Americans are Becoming Shorter Compared to Other Countries og:description: Dutch men and Latvian women are now the world's tallest og:url: https://time.com/4423589/americans-shorter-new-height-study/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt53a1a8a6e202c59b/69889f4e656a3f541ebcc768/height-comparison.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 2560 og:image:height: 1440 og:image:alt: Skeleton growth chart og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Americans are Becoming Shorter Compared to Other Countries twitter:description: Dutch men and Latvian women are now the world's tallest twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt53a1a8a6e202c59b/69889f4e656a3f541ebcc768/height-comparison.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Americans are Becoming Shorter Compared to Other Nationalities > Sponsored content. 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Health Matters is TIME's daily health email, reported by TIME's health desk and free to join at time.com/newsletters. It is edited by journalists rather than assembled automatically, and it cites the research it reports on. #### Is Health Matters free? Yes. Health Matters is a free daily newsletter from TIME, available at time.com/newsletters. #### Who reads TIME's Health Matters newsletter? Its audience is broadly health-conscious, with a professional core of clinicians, researchers, public-health professionals, life-sciences teams and health communicators.  by [Katie Reilly](https://time.com/author/katie-reilly/)  ## Katie Reilly Jul 26, 2016 12:09 PM UTC  Digital Vision/Getty Images  by [Katie Reilly](https://time.com/author/katie-reilly/)  ## Katie Reilly Jul 26, 2016 12:09 PM UTC Americans have, on average, become shorter, compared to their peers around the globe, a [new study](https://elifesciences.org/content/5/e13410) has found. In 1914, American men ranked third tallest in the world, and women ranked fourth tallest. Today, they have fallen to 37th and 42nd place after reaching their maximum average height in 1996 and 1988, respectively, [according to the BBC](http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-36888541), which cited a new study published on Tuesday. James Bentham and Majid Ezzati, both authors of the study from Imperial College, London, said the decline could be attributed to worsening nutrition standards for poor Americans, the [New York _Times_ reported](http://www.nytimes.com/2016/07/26/health/average-height-peaked.html?%5Fr=0). But they said immigration from countries with shorter citizens could also have played a role. Dutch men now enjoy the tallest average height (6 feet), while women in Latvia are tallest on average at 5 feet, 7 inches. The study, [published in eLife](https://elifesciences.org/content/5/e13410/article-data), assessed the measured heights of 18.6 million people born between 1896 and 1996\. It found that Iranian men and South Korean women experienced the largest height gains in the last century, [according to the _Times_](http://www.nytimes.com/2016/07/26/health/average-height-peaked.html?%5Fr=0). ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4423589/americans-shorter-new-height-study/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4423589/americans-shorter-new-height-study/"},"headline":"Americans are Becoming Shorter Compared to Other Nationalities","datePublished":"2016-07-26T12:09:17.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-22T23:32:43.835Z","description":"Dutch men and Latvian women are now the world's tallest","url":"https://time.com/4423589/americans-shorter-new-height-study/","keywords":["study","Research"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt53a1a8a6e202c59b/69889f4e656a3f541ebcc768/height-comparison.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Katie Reilly","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/katie-reilly/"}],"articleSection":"Health","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt53a1a8a6e202c59b/69889f4e656a3f541ebcc768/height-comparison.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Skeleton growth chart","caption":"Skeleton growth chart","creditText":"Digital Vision/Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/health/","name":"Health"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/study/","name":"study"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4423589/americans-shorter-new-height-study/","name":"Americans are Becoming Shorter Compared to Other Nationalities"}}]}] ```