While designers work to keep up with the increasing girth of American workers, Dutch designers have another issue to contend with: the country’s population is growing both up and out.
According to data collected by market research organization GfK, people in the Netherlands are presently about six inches taller than their ancestors were a mere 40 years ago.
In an article on the subject published on MSNBC, a spokesperson for GfK confirmed what other studies have already found: that the Dutch are the tallest group of people around. The height of the average Dutch man is now six-feet one-inch, approximately four inches taller than the average British or American man, and statistics are showing that the people keep growing. American heights, on the other hand, have remained stagnant.
While the burst in height is attributed to affluence, a dairy-rich diet, good hygiene and health care, it also comes with some concerns: currently half of the Dutch population is overweight and experts are estimating that within the next decade, a full two-thirds of the population could be overweight