So this is the rise of China I'm always hearing about
this post was submitted on 24 Mar 2026
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Data is Beautiful
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I bloody knew kids were getting taller.
Are those height filters a class filter then?
In order to know that we would have to break down something like the India section into different castes, and see if there's a height difference within the group overall group that correlates with the subgroups.
But I get where you're coming from. When I saw this was in data is beautiful my instinct was a little bit of a shiver because it felt like this data is informative but data might be a little bit racist.
And I say that as a 188.8 cm tall person born way outside the selection period. This needs some Southern African indigenous people representation.
Confused by the dashed lines at first. It's not an estimation of future heights, it just points to the country names...
The final year or two is anecdotal. "I don't have data for this period, but I did recently meet a really short American dude, so they're probably trending shorter."
I think Korea is similar to China too. When I went to Japan in 2013 I felt like a giant with my 187cm, but here in Korea I'm just tall like many other guys.
Entirely anecdotal, but I live in a university town in the UK, and to me everyone seems to be short as fuck. Without knowing that the average height has been increasing for decades, based on local observation I would have guessed the opposite.
What is happening in China?
Not starving anymore
In 300 years they'll all be at 3m
They managed to pull 1 billion people out of poverty and starvation, within 30 years.
Now they have a standard of living that's almost exactly at the global average.
One of the most insanely quick rises of any country from poverty to modernity.
Improved health conditions. The start of the curve is around '91, and given this graph is for 19yos it's probably some change around '72. I don't know which change.
Better diet, mostly.
Possible, but "better diet" on its own should apply to all five.
Another interesting bit in that pic is India. It was in a rather steep curve up from before '85 to ~'92[?]. Then it dropped, stagnated, started climbing back.
Mao died in '76. This wasn't some great achievement, but the end of one of the most catastrophic policies any country has submitted its own population to.
Mao died in '76. This wasn’t some great achievement, but the end of one of the most catastrophic policies any country has submitted its own population to.
Nah. Even if we eyeball the start of the curve, like I did, it clearly starts way before 1976+19 = 1995:
And upon further inspection even my eyeballed 1991 is a bit too late; 1969+19 = 1988 would make a better fit. It's something that happened before the 70s.
I mean percentage wise, they gained a lot.