 Towards an anthropometric history of latin America in the second half of the twentieth centuryAmílcar E. Challú and Sergio Silva-Castañeda Economics & Human Biology, 2016, vol. 23, issue C, 226-234 Abstract: We examine the evolution of adult female heights in twelve Latin American countries during the second half of the twentieth century based on demographic health surveys and related surveys compiled from national and international organizations. Only countries with more than one survey were included, allowing us to cross-examine surveys and correct for biases. We first show that average height varies significantly according to location, from 148.3cm in Guatemala to 158.8cm in Haiti. The evolution of heights over these decades behaves like indicators of human development, showing a steady increase of 2.6cm from the 1950s to the 1990s. Such gains compare favorably to other developing regions of the world, but not so much with recently developed countries. Height gains were not evenly distributed in the region, however. Countries that achieved higher levels of income, such as Brazil, Chile, Colombia and Mexico, gained on average 0.9cm per decade, while countries with shrinking economies, such as Haiti and Guatemala, only gained 0.25cm per decade. Keywords: Adult heights; Latin America; Twentieth century; Economic growth; Economic development (search for similar items in EconPapers) Downloads: (external link) Related works: Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:ehbiol:v:23:y:2016:i:c:p:226-234 DOI: 10.1016/j.ehb.2016.10.001 Access Statistics for this article Economics & Human Biology is currently edited by J. Komlos, Inas R Kelly and Joerg Baten More articles in Economics & Human Biology from Elsevier |
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