It is clear that over the past 100 years, men's average height and weight have increased twice as fast as women's
A study of height and weight for men and women going back to 1900 found that men were growing in size at twice the rate of women, showing signs of expanding sexual dimorphism in humans.
The sexy and formidable male body: men's height and weight are condition-dependent, sexually selected traits | Biology Letters
More than 100 years of data suggest men are growing taller and heavier at twice the rate of women
Men have grown twice as much as women over past century, study shows | Biology | The Guardian
https://www.theguardian.com/science/2025/jan/22/men-have-grown-twice-as-much-as-women-over-past-century-study-shows
In humans, males are on average taller, more muscular, and heavier than females. Previous research suggests that this difference in physique is probably due to males competing for females, and that in the past, men with larger physiques tended to win such fights, so gradually only larger men remained. However, in modern times, such fights have become less frequent, but humans continue to grow in physique.
David Jofre and his colleagues at the University of Genoa in Italy have found that sexual size dimorphism is observed in many species, and that in many countries, men are larger than women. They therefore investigated whether the physical differences between the sexes in humans have changed over time.
Jofre and his team accessed the WHO database and analyzed data from about 135,000 people in 62 countries around the world going back to 1900. The results showed that both men and women have been gaining height and weight, likely due to improvements in diet and health care. Of particular note was the difference in body size between men and women over time.
Jofre and his colleagues used the Human Development Index (HDI), an index that measures each country's level of human development based on three areas: longevity, knowledge, and a decent standard of living, and linked this HDI to data on the average height and weight of people in each country.
The HDI is expressed as a score from 0 to 1, and for every 0.2 point increase in the HDI, women's height increased by about 1.68 cm and their weight increased by about 2.7 kg on average. On the other hand, men's average height increased by about 4.03 cm and their average weight increased by 6.48 kg, showing that a large gap has been created between the physical physiques of men and women in the past 100 years.
In addition, when Joffre and his colleagues conducted further analysis focusing on the UK, they found that the UK's HDI rose from 0.8 in 1900 to 0.94 in 2022, and that the average height of men rose 4.12% from 170 cm to 177 cm, while the average height of women only rose 1.89% from 159 cm to 162 cm.
Regarding the widening physical disparity between men and women over the past 100 years, Joffre and his colleagues argue that this may be the result of women in each country continuing to choose men with larger builds as partners. Professor Lewis Halsey of the University of Roehampton, who was involved in the study, pointed out that 'to put this in perspective, the ratio of women who were taller than men was about one in four for people born in 1905, but for those born in 1958, this drops to about one in eight.'
In a study conducted by Jofre and colleagues linking height and weight to the Gini coefficient, they found that for every unit increase in the Gini coefficient (i.e., for every unit increase in inequality), the average height of women decreased by about 0.14 cm and for men by about 0.31 cm. For weight, the decrease was about 0.13 kg for women and 0.39 kg for men.
Regarding this, Dr. Jofre and his colleagues point out the connection with the living environment during childhood, and point out that people who grew up in poorer environments may have been less able to grow properly due to lack of nutrition. As for the difference between men and women, Dr. Jofre and his colleagues speculate that because women are smaller than men and have smaller organs necessary for metabolism, they may be less affected by fluctuations in nutrients and calories due to the environment.
Joffre and his colleagues point out that men are more susceptible to the effects of their early childhood living environment, and that larger body sizes are more likely to cause illnesses due to health problems, so 'males are subject to increased maintenance and development costs. ' They also said that future research tracking changes in the health status of populations will require follow-up surveys based on growth conditions and living environments.
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