Significant shorts : Britons on the up

People in Britain are continuing to grow taller, according to research due to be unveiled next month.

Today the average male stands at 5ft 10in - up five inches on 1900. And according to research carried out at the public health department of St Thomas's medical school in London, boys and girls from all classes have put on between 0.5in and 1.5in over the past 25 years.

Scientists are baffled as they thought the benefits of better diets and improved living conditions, responsible for much of the post-war growth, had peaked in the 1970s. One explanation could be smaller family sizes.