Why do kids normally grow up to be taller than their parents?

Asked by: Helen Osborne, Aberdeen

While your final height is dictated chiefly by the genes you inherit from your parents, factors like nutrition and disease account for around 20 per cent of the height variation between people. The factors' effect varies from country to country. For example, studies in Australia found that boys are typically around one per cent taller than their fathers, and girls around three per cent taller than their mothers. But in the Netherlands, the difference is around double that, and seems to be accelerating, possibly due to improved health and wealth.

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