ABSTRACT
In most countries, there have been dramatic changes in body size and shape over the last 50-100 years (Meredith, 1976). Figure 3.1 summarizes 30 studies which have tracked the evolution of height in various populations. Within each study, height at various time points was expressed as a percentage of the measured or estimated height in 1990. It appears that the rate of increase in height is accelerating. Most of the increase in height has occurred in the femur. Consequently, sitting height to stature ratios have fallen. These proportionality changes have implications for comfortable seating in aeroplanes, trains, trams and automobiles, and for manoeuvres such as ejection from aircraft.
