Re: Average Height by Country

On Feb 12, 2:58 am, Dmitry <dmitrijsfedot...@xxxxxxxx> wrote:
On 11 Feb, 10:01, "J. Anderson" <anderso...@xxxxxxxx> wrote:

"Tadas Blinda" <tadas.bli...@xxxxxxxx> wrote in message

news:a515eb71-c226-42d0-b5bb-e7834343addb@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

One has to wonder how reliable this is.
It's hard to imagine any country at all
having at its fingertips the statistics on
height of 100% of males age 18-30 years
If you have a conscript army, the age bracket 18 to 30 is usually when you
are required to carry out your military service. In Finland all male
citizens are measured and weighed in the physical examinations in connection
with the call-up, which takes place during the year when they become 18..

Sounds almost like communist/nazi paradise where men line up naked to
get measured......  I just can't understand why - solgiers aren't
models, any length or weight should do.

In Sovok it was 15 when you begin your journey through this procedure
twice a year until you're 18.  I don't know if the measuring continued
throughout the serving period - Vello would know.

That's why we have very a comprehensive picture of how tall (and fat!) our
boys are at age 18. However, most boys keep growing for a couple of years
after that,

Can't be most.  Growing after 18 is very rare.

so the Finnish figure 178.2 cm is not comparable with countries
where the average length is measured at higher ages.

I notice Latvia is missing.

My general impression is that the Latvians are a 'tall nation';

First time I have noticed this when I made a return journey in 2000.

the figure
would probably be near the one for Estonia.
Especially girls in the Baltics
seem to be tall.

I've heard this comment from many visitors to Riga -))

I've always admired their long legs, wondering whatever
happened to the leg growth of Finnish girls. The tallest population I've
ever met was in Split, Croatia. I was strolling along the local corso one
evening and felt like a midget despite my 6 feet (182.9 cm).

I'm 3 cm taller than you -))). I didn't grow since I was 15 though
-))  Once I found myself a midget in Kiev airport being surrounded by
Latvian women's volleyball team catching the same flight home.



In Finland there are very clear regional differences in average height.
People are taller in the southwest and get shorter further away from the
coast. This would seem to support your theory regarding Germanic genes.

In my observation, people are taller in Latvia than in Germany.

Language (or language family) is quite loosely tied to physical
appearence - it's more like citizenship: if you live in particular
language area different from your language your kids and their kids
will forgot your language but surely keep the genes. People keen to be
taller (and with lighter skin/hair/eye color) in northern countries
and most probably there is something to do with living conditions.
Racism, based on language is quite a young thing. Even in 1935-39 for
nazis "aryan" means blond, tall, light eyes/hair", not germanic
language - a slavic guy looking this way was "lost son" to be
reintegrated into healthy Northern race body, german with dark hairs
and short body was just example how "aryans" have spoiled their blood
purity in the past. Just war makes clear difference - any german good,
any non-german bad. he same happens btw in Soviet Union - cosmopolitan
"workers ideology" was immediately changed to nationalism based on
Russian history.
.

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