British five-year-olds are on average seven centimeters shorter than Dutch children, with poor diets blamed for children lagging behind in height rankings.
On average, five-year-olds in Britain are up to 2.7 centimeters shorter than in comparable wealthy countries like the Netherlands, experts revealed.
The trend has been described as ‘quite surprising’, with British youth falling ‘behind’ European kids and ranking 30 places lower on international height charts since 1985.
Than, British boys and girls rank 69th out of 200 nationalities for average height – they are now 102nd and girls 96th respectively.
Professor Tim Cole, an expert in childhood growth rates at the Great Ormond Street Institute of Child Health, University College London, explained that height is a clear indicator of living conditions.
British five-year-olds are on average seven centimeters shorter than children in the Netherlands, with a poor diet blamed for children lagging behind in height rankings (stock image)
The average five-year-old boy in the UK is 44.3 inches tall, against 47.1 inches in the Netherlands, the comparable country with the tallest children.
The average girl is about 120 cm tall, while her Dutch peer is 120 cm tall, according to national data collected by the Non-Communicable Diseases Risk Factor Collaboration.
Professor Cole, who was not involved in the most recent study, told The Times that broader data on the height of 19-year-olds suggested economic factors were responsible for the faltering height of British children.
Growing up in the 2010s, he said, ‘which coincidentally coincides with the period of austerity … tells me that austerity has affected the height of children in the UK’.
He said height can be influenced by factors such as illness, infection, stress, poverty and sleep quality, as well as diet.
He added that it is “very clear that we are falling behind Europe” and that over the past 14 years things have become “particularly difficult for British children”.
Henry Dimbleby, a former government food adviser, also explained that children’s nutrition in the UK is one of the ‘clearest signs of inequality’.
“Children in the poorest areas of England are both fatter and significantly smaller between the ages of 10 and 11 than children in the wealthiest areas,” he said.
GPs in poorer areas have also reported a resurgence of Victorian diseases such as rickets and scurvy, he added, “caused largely by nutritional deficiencies.”
It comes after British toddlers were found to have one of the world’s worst diets, The Telegraph reported earlier this year.
Mass-produced foods make up nearly two-thirds of children’s average energy intake, suggested a First Steps Nutrition report cited by the paper.
Children’s nutrition has also been hit hard by the crisis in the cost of living.
Data published earlier this year by the Food Foundation found that 27 percent of households with children under age 4 were food insecure in January 2023, a higher percentage than households with school-aged children or no children.
Anna Taylor, executive director of The Food Foundation, called on the government to do more to meet targets with the Healthy Start scheme, a benefit card scheme that helps low-income pregnant mothers or children with toddlers buy milk and food .
First Steps Nutrition found that 27 percent of households with children under age 4 were food insecure by January 2023 (stock image)
Childhood obesity and overweight rates in England have fallen this year after peaking during the Covid pandemic, but are still higher than before the lockdown
Nearly three in ten young people under the age of five were classified as overweight in Libya. Australia reported the second highest proportion, with those who are overweight accounting for more than a fifth of all children under the age of five at 21.8 per cent. This was followed by Tunisia, Egypt and Papua New Guinea with 19, 18.8 and 16 percent respectively. Britain was 22nd, while the US claimed 52nd spot in the ranking of 198 countries
She said: ‘Debilitating food price increases make it incredibly difficult for young low-income families to afford a healthy diet.
“This is extremely concerning given the importance of good nutrition for the growth and development of young children.”
Analysis Nearly half of children in parts of England are fat by the time they reach secondary school.
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