Canadians like to think they’re big on the world stage, but according to the largest global study of height, Canadians aren’t growing as fast as citizens of other countries.

While Canadian men were the fifth tallest in the world in 1914, a century later they ranked 27th. Canadian women, who were the sixth tallest people at the outbreak of World War I, ranked 40th in 2014.

It’s not because Canadians haven’t grown taller over that 100-year period. It’s because we haven’t grown as much as others.

For example, Canadian men had an average height of 170.7 centimeters (5 feet 7 inches) in 1914. Over the next 100 years, average height increased steadily, reaching a peak of 178.1 centimeters (5 feet 10 inches) in 2014.

But this increase of 7.4 centimeters in a century pales in comparison to the gains of about 11 centimeters among British and Chinese men and the 16.5 centimeters among Iranian men, which reached the highest value in the study.

The situation was similar for Canadian women. In 1914, the average Canadian woman was 157.6 centimeters (5 feet 2) tall. A century later, the average height was 163.9 centimeters (5 feet 4) – an increase of 6.3 centimeters.

By comparison, the average South Korean woman was 20.2 centimeters taller, while British and Chinese women gained an average of about 11 centimeters.

The world is growing in general, but at different speeds

Why did Canadians fall in the size rankings between 1914 and 2014?

“A combination of two things,” said Majid Ezzati, professor of public health at Imperial College London and lead researcher.

“(Canada) started higher than other countries … (and) plateaued earlier and at a lower level than other countries, such as those in continental Europe, which continued to grow upward,” he said in comments emailed to CBC News.

Like Canada, the United States experienced a similar decline in its relative height ranking. American men, who were the third tallest in the world in 1914, were the 37th tallest in 2014. American women fell from the fourth tallest in 1914 to the 42nd tallest a century later.

Led by scientists at Imperial College, researchers reached their findings by collecting a century’s worth of height data from nearly 200 countries for each year between 1914 and 2014 and using this to calculate the average height of 18-year-olds – an age at which growth normally stops. The results were published in the journal eLIFE.

They combed through hundreds of original sources – everything from conscription records to epidemiological studies and nutritional surveys.

Among other things, they found the following:

– The tallest men in 2014 came from the Netherlands, with an average height of 182.5 centimeters (6 feet).

– The tallest women are found in Latvia, with an average height of 170 centimetres (5 feet 7 inches).

– The smallest male population lived in East Timor with an average height of 160 centimeters (5 feet 3).

– The shortest women were found in Guatemala, at 149.4 centimeters (4 feet 11 inches).

The ten countries with the highest height for both men and women in 2014 were all in Europe.

While in industrialized countries body size has steadily increased over time, in some countries in Africa and the Middle East the average body size has actually decreased in recent decades.

In Togo, Swaziland and Sudan, for example, the average height of men has decreased by two centimeters in the last two decades. In Rwanda, the average height of men has decreased by almost five centimeters in the last 40 years.

Height as a health indicator

The nationwide height data is more than just interesting statistical data. While genetics plays a large role in how tall people become, height data can also be a good indicator of nutrition and health care. “Children and adolescents who are undernourished or suffer from serious illnesses will tend to be shorter as adults,” the study says.

“This is important because taller people generally live longer, suffer less from heart disease and stroke, and taller women and their children experience fewer complications during and after childbirth.”

Countries with the tallest men in 2014 (1914 ranking in brackets)

– Netherlands (12).

– Belgium (33).

– Estonia (4).

– Latvia (13).

– Denmark (9).

– Bosnia and Herzegovina (19).

– Croatia (22).

– Serbia (30).

– Iceland (6).

– Czech Republic (24).

27. Canada (5)

Countries with the tallest women in 2014 (1914 ranking in brackets)

– Latvia (28).

– Netherlands (38).

– Estonia (16).

– Czech Republic (69).

– Serbia (93).

– Slovakia (26).

– Denmark (11).

– Lithuania (41).

– Belarus (42).

– Ukraine (43).

40. Canada (6)