Anthropometric history in Chile: height evolution of the population in the long-run, XVIII to XX centuries

Abstract

The average height of a population has been recently taken as a good indicator of biological welfare, and
therefore of standards of living and economic development. This article provides the first available series
for Chile, providing the evolution of the average height of Chilean soldiers (male) born from the 1730s
to the 1980s, using a sample of 6.200 individuals. This sample can be safely taken as a good proxy of
the average height of Chilean male population for the period under study. Having analysed our data,
our main conclusions are: (i) around mid-eighteenth century the average height of Chileans was rather
high if compared to Chile itself, as well as to other countries of the region and Europe; (ii) during the
nineteenth century the average height of Chileans declined during a long spell, (iii) in the twentieth
century there was an important increase in the average male height, but in the developed world height
increased faster than in Chile.