Dutch men are the tallest in the world with an average height of 182.5 centimetres according to researchers at Imperial College in London.

Dutch women are the second tallest in the world, reaching an average height of 1.69 metres, one centimetre less than the Latvians.

The research team looked at information about heights from a variety of sources including military conscription forms, population surveys and other studies to find out how much people had grown over the past 100 years.

‘This study gives us a picture of the health of nations over the past century,’ public health professor Majid Ezzati told Reuters. The findings, he said, underlined the need ‘to address children and adolescents’ environment and nutrition on a global scale.’

Dutch men have grown from 1.69 metres a century ago to their present height. Women are now 14 centimetres taller than in 1914. By contrast, Americans have only grown by an average of six centimetres over the past 100 years.

The smallest men in the world come from East Timor, with an average height of 1.6 metres. Women from Guatemala were the smallest with an average height of 149 cm