全球身高排名：荷兰男性第一 拉脱维亚女性最高

导读:据一份最新研究表明，在身高问题上，荷兰男性和拉脱维亚女性要比其他国家的人都要高。

The average Dutchman is now 183cm (6ft) tall, while the average Latvian woman reaches 170cm (5ft 7in).

荷兰男性目前平均身高183厘米（6英尺），拉脱维亚女性平均身高170厘米（5英尺7英寸）。

The research, published in the journal eLife, has tracked growth trends in 187 countries since 1914.

这份研究被刊载在《eLife》杂志上，自从1914年以来，这份研究一直在跟踪187个国家的成长趋势。

It finds Iranian men and South Korean women have had the biggest spurts, increasing their height by an average of more than 16cm (6in) and 20cm (8in).

该研究发现伊朗男性和韩国女性的身高增长最大，平均身高增长分别达到了16厘米（6英寸）和20厘米（8英寸）以上。

In the UK, the sexes have gone up virtually in parallel by about 11cm (4in). "Mr Average" in Britain is now 178cm (5ft 10in) tall; Ms Average stands at 164cm (5ft 5in).

在英国，男性和女性的身高增长量几乎持平，大约11厘米（4英寸）。英国男性平均身高178厘米（5英尺10英寸），英国女性平均身高164厘米（5英尺5英寸）。

This contrasts for example with men and women in the US, where the height of the nation’s people started to plateau in the 1960s and 1970s. Over the century, they have seen increases of just 6cm and 5cm (a couple of inches), respectively.

与此相比，美国人的身高增长却不太大，美国人的身高在20世纪60年代和70年代的时候停滞不前了。在过去的一个世纪里，美国男性和女性的身高分别只增长了6厘米和5厘米（两英寸）。

Indeed, Americans have tumbled down the rankings. Back in 1914, they had the third tallest men and fourth tallest women on the planet. Today they are in 37th and 42nd place.

事实上，美国人的排名已经下降了。在1914年的时候，美国男性全球第三高，美国女性则排名第四。而现在，美国男性仅仅排名第37位，女性排名第42位。

The height charts are now utterly dominated by European countries, but the data would suggest that growth trends in general in the West have largely levelled out.

世界身高图谱现在完全被欧洲国家霸占了，但是数据显示西方国家身高一般增长趋势已基本趋于平稳。

The smallest men on the planet are to be found in East Timor (160cm; 5ft 3in).

东帝汶的男性全球最矮，仅为160厘米（5英尺3英寸）。

The world’s smallest women are in Guatemala, a status they also held back in 1914. According to the survey data, a century ago the average Guatemalan 18-year-old female was 140cm (4ft 7in). Today she has still not quite reached 150cm (4ft 11in).

危地马拉女性全球最矮，跟她们1914年的全球身高排名没有变化。据调查数据显示，一个世纪以前危地马拉18岁女性的平均身高是140厘米（4英尺7英寸）。直至今日，她们也还没有完全达到150厘米（4英尺11英寸）高。

East Asia has seen some of the biggest increases. People in Japan, China and South Korea are much taller than they were 100 years ago.

东亚一些国家增长量最大。日本、中国和韩国的居民要比他们100年前高多了。

"The parts of the world where people haven’t got particularly taller over this 100 years of analysis are in South Asia (such as India, Pakistan and Bangladesh) and in sub-Saharan Africa. Here the increase in height is between 1-6cm in those regions," explained co-author James Bentham from Imperial College London.

来自帝国理工大学的联合作者詹姆斯·本瑟姆解释道：“通过对过去100年数据的分析，发现世界上有些地方的人并没有特别地长高多少，这些地方包括南亚（如印度、巴基斯坦和孟加拉国）和撒哈拉以南非洲地区。这些地区的身高增长量只有1-6厘米。”

In fact, in parts of sub-Saharan Africa, average heights have actually fallen since the 1970s. Nations like Uganda and Sierra Leone have seen a few centimetres come off the height of the average man.

事实上，在撒哈拉以南非洲部分地区，平均身高实际上从20世纪70年代开始下降。乌干达和塞拉利昂等国家的男性平均身高已经下降了几厘米。