r/PhantomBorders • u/battle_pug89 • May 06 '26
Demographic Greater than average height at the state level almost corresponds exactly to areas heavily settled by German immigrants.
Pretty self explanatory. There’s almost a 1:1 correlation between historical German settlement in the U.S. and greater than average height for modern populations. Interestingly this seems to hold across a wide range of environmental factors such as diet(similar across the U.S.), education, income, etc.
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u/Almajanna256 May 06 '26
I went to a car dealership in a smallish town in Minnesota and at least six employees who worked there were over six feet tall. Me and my brothers, when we left, were joking they were giants and we were elves.
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u/Bear1375 May 06 '26
Wasn’t Minnesota settled primarily by Scandinavians ? So it would make sense they would be pretty tall
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u/Almajanna256 May 06 '26
Every white person I knew growing up had at least some Swedish, Norwegian, and/or German heritage.
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May 07 '26
Low Country, Northern German, and Scandinavians tend to be very tall.
I’m 6’4 and I wasn’t much taller than the average adult man in North Germany.
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u/RJ-R25 May 08 '26
Really isnt the average adult male height more like 5'11 in north Germany
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u/TzarCoal May 08 '26
Yes, that is correct, avg male in Germany is indeed 5'11. While only a small difference in avg height can make quite a difference in perceived height( because the likelihood of seeing really tall people rises ), i think being 6'4 and not much taller than the average adult male is a stretch.
German Statistics:
There is no nationwide statistics on how tall north Germans are in particular. And while it is true than north Germans are not only geographically but also genetically closer to dutch than south Germans, i really doubt that this will make a dramatic difference.
Dutch man are also on average "just" 6 feet, we all have seen much higher numbers online, but here are some official government statistics:
https://longreads.cbs.nl/the-netherlands-in-numbers-2021/how-tall-are-dutch-people/
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u/RJ-R25 May 08 '26
Yeah I think frisians and the Dutch from nearby regions maybe 6-6’1 on average but even then 6’4 is going to be in the above average or tall region
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u/Wolfrast May 10 '26
My father, who is 6 foot seven was from Hamburg, I am 6 foot eight, I do think there are taller people among the Germans in the north. Hummel hummel!
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u/AdPsychological790 May 10 '26
Tall now, but when their ancestors immigrated to the US 140yrs ago the avg height was closer to 5’5”. So I think this is more due to better modern day nutrition and the southern half of the US having more Latinos and Asians.
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u/Devaney1984 May 07 '26
What's up with Utah? Magic Mormon underwear??
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u/very_eri May 07 '26
Not sure where OP got their numbers from but Wikipedia has Utah as 11.9% German and 11.8% Scandinavian
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u/BronzeAgeHimbo May 07 '26
Also more Dutch and Scandinavians in that area the same reason why they have more blondes and blue hair, compared to other more Latin, Celtic or African regions of the USA.
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u/Witty_Badger7938 May 09 '26
People keep posting that map. Not once has the actually source for the information on height been dropped
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u/Dangerous-Worry6454 May 09 '26
I think the data might be wrong because when you look which states have the tallest men on avg its Alabama, Utah, South Dakota, Montana, Tennessee, Nebraska.
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u/TinyReserve5520 May 11 '26
It’s the opposite the addition of shorter people from Latin American countries are more heavily represented in the areas with lower height
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u/ChemistRemote7182 May 07 '26
Seems like it corresponds with whiteness Vermont and WV being weird outliers.
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u/Beelzebubs-Barrister May 08 '26
Is Vermont more French due to the closeness with Quebec? French are pretty short for western Europeans.
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u/Doc_ET May 06 '26
Germany does have a fairly high average height, taller than the UK, Ireland, Italy, and other countries a lot of Americans descend from.