Netherlands: The country with the tallest people of the world 

Ever wondered where the tallest men and women live in the world? Well, the answer is Netherlands. Also called a land of giants, the Netherlands is home to men with an average height of a Dutch man is 182.5 cm (about 6 feet). The average height of a Dutch woman is 168.7 cm (5.5 feet). Compare that with the average height in India: An Indian male measures 177 cm (5.8 feet) on an average and a woman 162 cm (5.3 feet). So what makes Dutch people so tall? It’s a combination of diet, natural selection and environmental factors such as income and healthcare.  

Land of giants  
Ask any of your European friends and they would agree that the Netherlands is a land of giants indeed. Standing at around six feet on average, Dutch men are the tallest males on the planet. What’s more surprising is that these people have gone from being among the smallest people in Europe to the largest in the world within a century.  

How did the Dutch become so tall in such a short time? For one, people in the Netherlands have a voracious appetite for dairy and meat, and this according to experts has significantly contributed to their increased height as calcium improves bone health. No wonder, the Dutch remain among the biggest consumers of milk and cheese in the world. 

Two, environmental factors could also have helped Dutch people gain height. Endowed with the finest healthcare system and low levels of income inequality, Dutch people have lesser problems to deal with. Three, the Dutch experience is also driven by natural selection: the people who had the most children were tall men and women of average height. Height is a very heritable trait — taller parents usually have taller children. Now, because taller individuals were observed to be more fertile, they would have more offspring. Thus, the next generation would be taller than its predecessors. 

Why are they shrinking? 
For the past few years, it has been noticed that the average height of Dutch people is shrinking. The reasons could be partly related to increased levels of immigration from shorter population groups, or even more speculatively, more people leaving out animal products in their diets.  

Surprising facts of Netherlands  

• The Dutch national anthem is the oldest in the world. 
• The Netherlands is the world’s biggest flower exporter. 
• One-third of the Netherlands is under sea level. 
• There are over 1,000 windmills in the Netherlands.