During last week’s Presidential debate, Senator McCain pointed out the height difference between North and South Koreans.
This is likely due to malnutrition and poor living conditions:
Studies of escapees from North Korea show that those born after the partitioning of the Korean Peninsula in the North were consistently about two inches shorter than their counterparts in the South.
Tara Parker-Pope considers this fact, as well as an interesting observation of a growing height gap between Americans and Europeans.
Apparently height itself is a form of “biological shorthand” that can be extrapolated to measure a society’s well-being.
