Indians are taller than they were a century ago, but the generational growth in height may be tapering off in the country far earlier than in other south-east Asian countries Share Via Read Full Story.

That Indians are among the shortest people in the world is now already well established, but could Indians, contrary to the global trend, be getting even shorter.

In aggregate terms, the decline in height falls within sampling errors, but at the least, there is no evidence of an increase in height.

In the previous decade (1995-96 to 2005-06), average male height grew 0.5cm but six states saw a fall in their average height, according to NFHS data analysed by demographer Abhishek Singh and others.

The biggest improvement in male height in the late 90s and early 2000s was in Kerala, while in the most recent decade, it was in Himachal Pradesh.

The tallest men, meanwhilethose in Jammu Kashmir, Punjab, Himachal Pradesh and Keralaare taller than the average male height in at least 30 countries.

The shortest Indian womenthose in Meghalaya, Tripura, Jharkhand and Biharare as short as the shortest women in the world, those in Guatemala and the Philippines.

The tallest Indian womenthose in Punjab, Jammu Kashmir, Kerala and Haryanaare taller than those in over 40 countries.

The largest gains occurred in South Korean women and Iranian men, who became 20.2cm and 16.5cm taller, respectively.

The US was the first western country to stop growing, followed by north European and east European countries.

In Asia, the rise in height in Japan stopped in people born after the early 1960s.

In South Korea, the flattening began in the cohorts born in the 1980s for men and it may have just begun in women.

In fact, in the NCD-RisC database (the historical dataset created by a global team of researchers for the study), the height of Indian men has slightly declined every year from the mid-80s, starting from the cohort born in 1984, men who would today be 35 years old.

Indian men born in 1896 were on average 1 cm taller than Chinese men and 2 cm taller than South Korean men.

By 1996, that height disadvantage had grown to 7cm in relation to China and 10cm in comparison with South Korea.

But at best, improvements in child stunting have not been fast enough to match Indias pace of growth, and at worst, Indians have finished growing taller far earlier than expected.

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Average Male Height