Secular trends in stature in Poland: national and social class-specific

Mean statures of Polish 19-year-old males, as estimated from large national random samples of conscripts examined at 10-year intervals, increased from 170.5cm in 1965 to 176.9cm in 1995. The average statural gain of 2.1cm per decade is rather high compared to other European countries, although not e xceptionally so. In addition, secular trends were analysed separately for e ach of seven selected social groups, each group comprising subjects equated for three social criteria. The rank-order of the seven groups on the statu ral scale has remained identical throughout the period considered, although the group-specific trends have not been strictly parallel. During the peri od 1965-1986 there has been a tendency for the groups lowest on the social and statural scale to diminish their statural distance from the social elit e, the sons of the large-city intelligentsia, a social group consistently t he tallest of all the seven groups considered. However, that tendency for t he social gaps to narrow came to a halt during the last, 1986-1995, decade. The present time-lag, in stature, of the group lowest on the social scale, the peasants, behind the social elite amounts to almost 30 years. These fi ndings assume special significance in view of: (1) the high ethnic homogene ity of the population of Poland; (2) the absence in that population of any social-class differences in gene frequencies; and (3) certain peculiarities of Poland's post-war economic and political history.