The largest ever study of height around the world has found that Dutch men and Latvian women are the tallest on the planet.
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People of both sexes in the United Kingdom are a long way down the worldwide height league table.
With numbers like those Ireland may not be the first port of call for anyone putting together a basketball team but, today, the average Irish man is not that far behind, standing at 178.9cm, while the typical Irish woman stands at 165.1cm.
Research has shown that Dutch men are the tallest in the world, with the average man clocking in at an imposing 183 centimeters (6 feet).
The tallest nations worldwide are all found in Europe, and also include Estonia, Denmark, Servia and the Czech Republic.
In the women’s table, Latvia was followed by the Netherlands, Estonia, the Czech Republic and Serbia.
The world’s smallest women are in Guatemala, a status they also held back in 1914.
Scientists from Imperial College London, using data from most countries in the world, tracked height among young adult men and women between 1914 and 2014.
While the Irish don’t make the top 10, we’re universally tall apparently, coming in 20th place for men and 24th for women out of 200 countries.
In the USA, men gained about 2 ½ inches (6 centimeters) over the century, with about 2 inches (5 centimeters) for women.
Professor Majid Ezzati, from ICL, added: “Our study also shows the English-speaking world, especially the United States of America, is falling behind other high-income nations in Europe and Asia Pacific”.
Men and women have grown taller over the last century, with South Korean women shooting up by more than 20cm (7.9in) on average, and Iranian men gaining 16.5 cm (6.5in). American men and women have grown by just 6 centimeters and 5 centimeters respectively.
Among other findings published in the journal eLife, the height of men and women in the United Kingdom was found to have increased by roughly 4.3in over the past century.
Mary De Silva, Head of Population, Environment and Health at Wellcome, said the most striking thing was the gap between the tallest and shortest countries.
The height difference between men and women had on average remained largely unchanged over 100 years – the average height gap was about 11cm in 1914 and 12cm in 2014.
In contrast, some nations in sub-Saharan Africa, North Africa and the Middle East have seen average heights decline over the past three to four decades.
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Australian men in 2014 were the only non-European nationality in the top 25 tallest in the world.
