STATURE AND RELATIVE DEPRIVATION - FATHERLESS CHILDREN IN EARLY INDUSTRIAL BRITAIN

In recent literature links between nutrition, health status and statur e have been used to supplement conventional economic indices of well-b eing, but the accuracy of stature as an indicator of welfare remains i n dispute. Here we use qualitative and quantitative evidence on work, income, nutrition, living conditions and heights for a relatively depr ived subsample of the population in early industrial Britain: children in female-headed households. We find the impoverished condition of fa therless children can be identified and smaller stature is also eviden t. We thus endorse the usefulness of the anthropometric approach as an indicator of relative well-being but emphasise the need to check the composition of samples which are taken to be representative of the pop ulation.