Since the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th, adult men from Canary Islands, which was then one of the poorest regions in the country, had a height comparable to that of the most developed populations in the world and, in 1934, their average height reached 167.4 centimeters, compared to the Spanish average of 164.5.
These data come from a research project in historical anthropometry at a national level involving universities from the Basque Country, Zaragoza, Santander, Madrid, Barcelona, Extremadura, Murcia, Andalucía, Castilla La Mancha, and La Laguna, in the case of the Canary Islands, and it will continue until 2025.
The study has been funded by the Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities and, for the case of the archipelago, data from 6,333 male heights measured between 1880 and 1936 with standardized sizes at ages between 18 and 20 years have been analyzed, as they come from different enlistments of young men called up for military service.
The researcher specifies that the study has focused on male height as there were no available sources regarding female height, and the work has also analyzed to what extent nutritional stress situations affected height growth between 1860 and 1930.
Changing Habits
[–>
The data correspond to young men from La Orotava and Santa Cruz de Tenerife, in Tenerife, Santa Cruz de La Palma, and San Bartolomé in Lanzarote, but the study will be extended to Gran Canaria, La Gomera, and El Hierro, as stated in an interview with EFE by Cándido Román-Cervantes, director of the Cajasiete Chair in Social Economy and Cooperative at the Faculty of Economics, Business and Tourism of the University of La Laguna.
Regarding this, Cándido Román-Cervantes details that it is about studying the adult male height at the beginning of the nutritional transition, that is, the period from the late 19th century to the early 20th, when dietary habits in Western societies changed following the Industrial Revolution.