Not just a tall story: the Dutch really are shrinking, statistics agency confirms

Poorer diet may explain why the lofty lowlanders are at least 1cm shorter than the previous generation It is, perhaps, with just a hint of satisfaction that the Dutch office for national statistics has confirmed that the men and women of the Netherlands remain the tallest people on the planet. But the government's statisticians have had cause to report a further potentially humbling twist: the Dutch are shrinking. For the last six decades the people of the lowlands have stood imperiously at the ...