Men and women have grown taller over last century

Level 2 l Upper intermediate

1 Warmer
a. Write your name and how tall you think you are on a piece of paper.
b. Arrange the pieces of paper according to the heights written on them, from smallest to tallest.
c. Stand in a line according to your height (smallest to tallest).
d. Compare the line-up with your pieces of paper. How accurately did everyone record their heights?

2 Key words
Match the key words with the definitions below. Then, find them in the article to read them in context. The
paragraph numbers are given to help you.

degree down to nutrition plateaued primarily

productive ramifications salaries shooting up welfare state

1. growing taller very quickly ____________________________ (para 1)

2. mainly ____________________________ (para 5)

3. the process by which we receive food and the way it influences our health __________________________
(para 5)

4. fixed amounts of money that you earn each month or year from your job ____________________________
(para 6)

5. caused by ____________________________ (para 8)

6. a system in which a country looks after its citizens by providing social and financial support
____________________________ (para 8)

7. amount ____________________________ (para 10)

8. reached its highest level and then stayed there, not increasing any further (para 11)

9. complicated or unexpected ways in which something affects other things ____________________________

(para 13)

10. working hard and achieving a lot ____________________________ (para 13)

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NEWS LESSONS / Men and women have grown taller over last century / Upper intermediate
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Men and women have grown taller over last century
Level 2 l Upper intermediate
Tall story? Men and women have
grown taller over last century,
study shows
Dutch men and Latvian women are now the
tallest in the world, height study reveals. Where
do you stand on the global height chart?
Nicola Davis
26 July, 2016
1 Men and women have grown taller over the last
century, with South Korean women shooting up
by more than 20cm on average and Iranian men
by 16.5cm. A comprehensive global study looked
at the average height of 18-year-old men and
women in 200 countries between 1914 and 2014.
2 The results reveal that, while Swedes were the
tallest people in the world in 1914, Dutch men
have risen from 12th place to claim top spot with
an average height of 182.5cm.
3 Latvian women, meanwhile, rose from 28th
place in 1914 to become the tallest in the world a
century later, with an average height of 169.8cm.
4 With an increase in height seen across the century
in every country around the world, the British have
also gained a few inches. Both men and women
have added around 11cm to their height since
1914, with the average man now 177.5cm tall and
the average woman now 164.4cm.
5 James Bentham, a co-author of the research,
says that the global trend is probably primarily
due to improvements in nutrition, hygiene and
healthcare. “A person’s genetics has a big
influence on their height but most populations
would grow to roughly similar heights if they were
all living in the same conditions,” he said.
6 Being taller brings a number of advantages, says
Elio Riboli, another co-author of the study. “The
good news is that being taller is associated with
longer life expectancy,” he said. “This is largely
due to a lower risk of dying of cardiovascular
disease among taller people.” But, Riboli warns,
while taller people have, on average, larger
salaries and higher levels of education, there
are downsides, with greater height potentially
associated with an increased risk of
some cancers.
© Macmillan Publishers Ltd 2016
NEWS LESSONS / Men and women have grown taller over last century / Upper intermediate
7 The research was published in the journal eLife
by a network of nearly 800 health scientists
worldwide. The scientists used information from
almost 1,500 sources, including government
health studies and military data, to show changes
in the height of 18-year-olds across 200 countries
over 100 years from 1914.
8 The results show that men are taller than women
around the world and that European countries now
hold the top ten positions for height, with Dutch men
and Latvian women the tallest for their sex. That,
says Bentham, could be down to the introduction of
a welfare state in many European countries.
9 By contrast, men from East Timor are the
shortest, with a height of 159.8cm, while the
title for shortest women remains with the female
population of Guatemala, who have an average
height of 149.4cm.
10 But while height has increased around the world
since the beginning of the First World War, the
researchers found that the degree of change
varied greatly between countries.
11 While South Korean women have shot up by just
over 20cm since 1914, men in South Africa have
grown by just 1.4cm over the century. American
men, meanwhile, plateaued in the 1960s,
resulting in a drop from third place in 1914 to 37th
place in 2014. That, the authors suggest, could
be down to worsening levels of nutrition and
greater inequalities.
12 The trend in many countries of north and sub-
Saharan Africa is also cause for concern, says
Riboli. While the research shows that height
increased in countries such as Uganda and Niger
during the early-twentieth century, the trend has
reversed in recent years, with height decreasing
among 18-year-olds.
13 Bentham believes the global trend of increasing
height has important ramifications. “How tall we
are now is strongly influenced by the environment
we grew up in. And our height affects both our life
expectancy and our health as adults,” he said.
“If we give children the best possible start in life
now, they will be healthier and more productive
for decades to come.”
© Guardian News and Media 2016
First published in The Guardian, 26/07/16
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Men and women have grown taller over last century
Level 2 l Upper intermediate
3 Comprehension check
Answer the questions using information from the article.
1. How many countries were involved in the study and how old were the people whose information was used in
the study?
2. How long a period was studied?
3. What advantages are there to being tall?
4. What health problem might be associated with being tall?
5. Overall, what affects height more: genetics or social conditions?
6. Which countries or regions saw a height decrease?
7. What has happened to the height of American men and what is the reason for this?
8. What possible reason is given for residents of European countries being the tallest in the world and holding the
top ten positions in the global height chart?

4 Expression
a. Something that is cause for concern is …
1. … deadly.
2. … worrying.
3. … interesting.

b. What, according to Elio Riboli, a co-author of the study, is cause for concern?
c. What, in your country or town, do you find cause for concern?

5 Discussion
• Are there any statistics in the article that surprise you?
• How does your height compare to that of your grandparents? What are the reasons for any differences
or similarities in your heights?

6 Webquest
The introduction asks ‘Where do you stand on the global height chart?’ Visit the following website where
you can view a summary of data (including height and body mass index) for a country of your choice:
www.ncdrisc.org/v-height.html.
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NEWS LESSONS / Men and women have grown taller over last century / Upper intermediate
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Men and women have grown taller over last century
Level 2 l Upper intermediate
KEY
Teacher’s note: The complete height tables (with 4 Expression
the countries presented in alphabetical order) can be
accessed here: a. 2
www.theguardian.com/science/2016/jul/26/tall-story- b. the trend of decreasing average height in many
men-and-women-have-grown-taller-over-last-century- countries of north and sub-Saharan Africa
study-shows.

1 Warmer

Teacher’s tip: Do not allow students to check their

height against any ID cards or similar that may contain
this information until after the warmer task.
In a large class, split students into groups of five
to eight.

2 Key words

1. shooting up
2. primarily
3. nutrition
4. salaries
5. down to
6. welfare state
7. degree
8. plateaued
9. ramifications
10. productive

3 Comprehension check

1. 200 countries; 18 years old

2. 100 years
3. longer life expectancy, larger salaries, higher levels
of education
4. an increased risk of getting some kinds of cancer
5. social conditions
6. countries in north and sub-Saharan Africa, such as
Uganda and Niger
7. Their height increased until the 1960s but stopped
increasing at that point. The authors suggest that
this could be down to worsening levels of nutrition
and greater inequalities.
8. the introduction of a welfare state
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NEWS LESSONS / Men and women have grown taller over last century / Upper intermediate
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