 URL britons stand tall if slightly heavy in europe john carvel social affairs editor wednesday august NUMBER NUMBER the guardian not every european dimension has been harmonised in brussels yet according to the department for trade and industry the average briton stands head shoulders girth and bottoms above their continental partners the figures come in a new edition of the department s handbook of anthropometric and strength measurements compiled by ergonomists at the university of nottingham to help manufacturers design products to fit people s shape the volume provides NUMBER measurements ranging from the distance between the inner corners of the eyes to the length of the leg between the crease below the buttock to the crease at the back of the knee it has discovered that the average british man is NUMBER millimetres NUMBER inches taller than his french counterpart the mean height of uk citizens is NUMBER NUMBER NUMBERmm NUMBERft NUMBERin among european men only the dutch are taller averaging NUMBER NUMBERmm and with a clear height advantage over the us men s average of NUMBER NUMBER NUMBER the average british woman is NUMBER NUMBERmm tall just under NUMBERft NUMBERin compared with NUMBER NUMBERmm for her french counterpart NUMBER NUMBERmm for the italians and NUMBER NUMBERmm for the germans swedish women average NUMBER NUMBERmm dutch NUMBER NUMBERmm and americans NUMBER NUMBER NUMBERmm more disturbingly british men and women are heavier than all the other nationalities except the americans averaging NUMBER NUMBER kilos for british men and NUMBER NUMBER for women the average british woman has a chest measurement of NUMBER NUMBER NUMBERmm NUMBER NUMBER inches compared with NUMBERmm for the italians NUMBER NUMBERmm for the japanese and NUMBERmm for sri lankans american women also top this scale with an average of NUMBER NUMBER NUMBERmm the average british woman s waist is NUMBER NUMBERmm NUMBER inches also second largest behind the americans but her bottom at NUMBER NUMBERmm is considerably smaller than the italians at NUMBERmm who beat the americans into second place the average british male foot is NUMBER NUMBERmm long NUMBER NUMBER inches NUMBERmm longer than the french and germans NUMBERmm more than the italians and NUMBERmm more than the swedes but they are just beaten by the americans at NUMBER NUMBERmm and massively outstripped by the dutch at NUMBERmm however dutch women have daintier feet than the british averaging NUMBERmm compared with NUMBER NUMBERmm in the uk NUMBER NUMBER inches german women average NUMBERmm compared with NUMBERmm for the swedes and NUMBER NUMBERmm for the americans the dti has a less than exhaustive record of ring finger lengths but on the available evidence the british man s finger at NUMBER NUMBERmm NUMBER NUMBER inches is NUMBER NUMBERmm longer than his german counterpart but NUMBER NUMBERmm shorter than the american average the british woman s ring finger at NUMBER NUMBERmm is NUMBER NUMBERmm smaller than her german counterpart and NUMBER NUMBERmm smaller than the american beverley norris research fellow at nottingham university s institute for occupational ergonomics said the figures were useful for product designers the department has recently completed a study of the pulling force needed to open ring pull cans yahoo groups sponsor NUMBER dvds free s p join now URL to unsubscribe from this group send an email to forteana unsubscribe URL your use of yahoo groups is subject to URL 