European Heights in the Early 18th Century

We estimate the height of the English, Irish and Saxon populations in the first half of the 18th century on the basis of North American military records. English and Irish male heights are estimated at c. 165 cm, and 168 cm respectively. These values are below those obtained from the only other sample available for the period pertaining to British and Irish men, namely those of runaway indentured and convict servants in colonial North America. At c. 164 cm Saxon and German military heights appear to be near the bottom of the European height distribution in this period. The English were about as tall as Czechs and Northern French, but shorter than the Irish and Hungarians. A large decline in English heights is evident among the birth cohorts of 1725-1729, suggesting that the subsistence crisis of this period must have had a substantial lasting impact on the nutritional status of the cohort born during a time of nutritional deprivation.