Whodunit Wednesday: The tallest people in the world

According to a recent study and nay other studies throughout the years, the Netherlands has the tallest people in the world, generally. That doesn’t mean that the tallest man or woman in the world will be from the Netherlands. It does man that in general you will feel pretty short if you walk around in the Netherlands. 

The mean height for men in the Netherlands is over 6 foot. For women the mean is above 5 foot 7 inches. This simply confirms what I have always felt. I am not short. I know that I was pretty proud when I could say that I was taller than my father. He was always saying that he was 5’10” and a half. The “and a half” was important. I am just above 6 foot. And my “little” brother is taller than I am. But that didn’t matter when I came to the Netherlands. 

Almost any time that I am standing in line at the checkout of a grocery store or walking down the streets in beautiful Maastricht, I am towered over by the people around me. Young Dutch men, older Dutch men, and not a few Dutch women are at least as tall as me and many are easily taller. It is no problem finding a large size shoe in the shoe store (although I only wear a 10.5 or 11). 

Of course for Shirley this presents other difficulties. Shirley is petite. The Dutch women are not. So finding clothes in the Netherlands is not always a simple task for a smaller woman. Our colleagues are in the same boat as we. Ruud is a Dutchman. Although he has “shrunk” in the last years due to health challenges, I always remember looking up to him (he is 6’5”). But his wife is only an inch taller than Shirley. 

Down at our Bible camp we had inherited the beds from the Dutch army. We got them for a good price because the Dutch army needed to buy new beds. It seems that the typical Dutch man had gotten even taller. So even though the beds we inherited were longer than normal, the new beds the army was buying for their soldiers were even longer. My colleague has always had to order a special bed that will be long enough to keep his feet on the bed. He even had to special order a walker as he has come to need one. 

Although this height has sometimes helped the Dutch in sports, it has not always translated into victory. There have been championship men’s and women’s volleyball teams at the Olympics, but not that recently. Basketball was not a common sport in the Netherlands until modern history, so it is only recently that more Dutch men have started playing and breaking through. Women’s basketball is played more in Belgium than in the Netherlands where women’s cycling, ice skating and field hockey are more important. 

Genes, healthy food and healthy societal norms have all contributed to this truth. When I first came to the Netherlands, drinking milk was a given. The whole country was built on dairy and dairy products. Milk, cheese and more are part and parcel of the Netherlands, just like tulips and wooden shoes.