Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Health, market integration, and the urban height penalty in the US, 1847–1894

  • Original Paper
  • Published:
Cliometrica Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

This study analyzes trends and determinants of the height of men born in the 100 largest American urban areas during the second half of the nineteenth century and compares them with heights of the rural population. In this sample of 21,704 US Army recruits, there is an urban height penalty of up to 0.58 in. (1.5 cm). An increment in urban population of 100,000 is associated with a height decrease of about 0.31 in. (0.8 cm). Urban heights declined after 1855 followed by stagnation until the early 1890s, whereas rural heights stagnated from the late 1840s until 1885. Urban recruits from the northeast were 0.46 in. (1.2 cm) shorter than urban Midwestern recruits. There is some evidence of a height convergence between large and small cities toward the end of the century and of an inverted U-shaped relationship between height and city size. Urban heights were positively correlated with the extent of the railroad network, the real wage rate in the manufacturing sector, and high socioeconomic status, while they were negatively correlated with the death rate, and the percentage of the city’s population employed in manufacturing.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1
Fig. 2
Fig. 3
Fig. 4
Fig. 5
Fig. 6

Similar content being viewed by others

Notes

  1. Our data are obtained from US Army enlistment record rolls 46–68 for the years 1898–1912 from the National Archives in Washington, DC and from volumes 11, 12, 18, and 19 of the 1880 US Census of Population and Housing (Report on the Social Statistics of the Cities).

  2. Out of the 100 largest cities in 1880, 75 were already among the 100 largest in 1860 (Gibson 1998).

  3. Deaths in 1880 are divided by the living population at the end of the year. This makes across country comparison difficult, but does not affect comparison between cities as done in this study. However, increasing accuracy in the recording of deaths over time could inflate death rates unless increases in accuracy also increased the population count (Billings 1885).

  4. The limitation is, however, that the crude death rate used here depends on the demographic structure of the city. The older the population in a city, the higher the crude death rate irrespective of the disease environment. However, infant mortality, another indicator of the disease environment, is only available at the state level.

  5. It is virtually impossible to clearly separate the effects of disease and nutrition on height. For an analysis of these two factors using data on southern slaves, see Coelho and McGuire (2000) and Steckel’s (2000) reply.

  6. Since immigrants tended to be shorter than native-born Americans, another channel is the intergenerational transmission of short stature to their children which would also lead to shorter heights of potential recruits. However, Zehetmayer (2010) finds no such evidence using a subsample of this dataset matched with the 1880 population census.

  7. The share of 10–15 year olds of the total workforce was 15 % (Weiss 2006; Sobek 2006).

  8. The unusual magnitude of the decline might be due to sampling error because of the small number of observations in this cohort.

  9. Urban semi-skilled workers nationwide, in the northeast, and in the 11th to 50th cities (ranked by size) suffered a height penalty (Table 2, Model 3; Table 3, Model 2; Table 4, Model 1). Urban skilled workers suffered a height penalty at all three of these levels and additionally in the ten largest cities (Table 2, Model 3; Table 3, Models 1 and 2; Table 4, Model 1). Urban upper-level white-collar workers enjoyed a height premium on the national level, in the 51st to 100th cities (ranked by size), and in the urban Midwest (Table 2, Model 3; Table 3, Model 3; Table 4, Model 3).

  10. Similar to Komlos (2007).

  11. This decrease is remarkable because it happened even though Suffolk County which contained Boston annexed townships that were more rural than the city of Boston. However, these townships had a relatively low agricultural productivity (Waring 1886).

  12. Proxies for public health such as the number of taps per household or the miles of sewage lines proved to be insignificant in all specifications.

  13. The urban penalty from Table 2, Model 1 for living in one of the 100 largest urban counties and standard deviations from Table 1 are used.

  14. The death rate ceases being significant when real wage is included. This could be because including the variable real wage reduces the sample size by as many as 3,352 observations.

  15. Using sample averages and coefficients from Table 10 in relation to the height penalty from Table 2.

  16. Using 1890 values from registration states that reported death rates (Haines 2001) with coefficients from Table 9 in relation to the height penalty from Table 2.

  17. A similar pattern for water transportation in urban areas has been identified by Yoo (2012).

References

  • Billings J (1885) Report on the mortality and vital statistics of the United States. US Bureau of the Census http://www2.census.gov/prod2/decennial/documents/1880a_v11-01.pdf. Accessed March 2011

  • Bodnar J (1987) The transplanted: a history of immigrants in urban America. Indiana University Press, Bloomington, IN

    Google Scholar 

  • Carson SA (2008) Nineteenth century black and white US statures: the primary sources of vitamin D and their relationship with height. CESifo Working Paper Series No. 2497

  • Carson SA (2009) Health, wealth and inequality: a contribution to the debate about the relationship between inequality and health. Hist Methods 42(4)

  • Coelho P, McGuire R (2000) Diets versus diseases: the anthropometrics of slave children. J Econ Hist 60(1):232–246

    Google Scholar 

  • Condran GA, Crimmins-Gardner E (1978) Public health measures and mortality in US cities in the late nineteenth century. Human Ecol 6(1):27–54

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Condran GA, Crimmins-Gardner E (1980) Mortality differentials between rural and urban areas of states in the northeastern United States 1890–1900. JHist Geogr 6(2):179–202

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Costa D, Steckel R (1997) Long-term trends in health, welfare, and economic growth in the United States. In: Steckel R, Floud R (eds) Health and Welfare during Industrialization. National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc, Cambridge, MA, pp 47–90

    Google Scholar 

  • Crimmins-Gardner EM, Condran GA (1983) Mortality variation in US cities in 1900: a two-level explanation by cause of death and underlying factors. Soc Sci Hist 7(1):31–59

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ferrie J, Long J (Forthcoming) Intergenerational occupational mobility in Britain and the US since 1850. Am Econ Rev

  • Fogel R (1994) Economic growth, population theory, and physiology: the bearing of long-term processes on the making of economic policy. Am Econ Rev 84:369–395

    Google Scholar 

  • Fogel RW, Engerman SL, Floud R, Steckel RH, Trussell J (1982) Changes in American and British stature since the mid-eighteenth century: a preliminary report on the usefulness of data on height… NBER Working Papers 0890, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc

  • Gage TB, Zansky SM (1995) Anthropometric indicators of nutritional status and level of mortality. Am J Human Biol 7:679–691

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Gibson C (1998) Population of the 100 largest cities and other urban places in the United States. Bureau of the Census. http://www.census.gov/population/www/documentation/twps0027/twps0027.html. Accessed March 2011

  • Goldin C, Sokoloff K (1982) Women, children, and industrialization in the early republic: evidence from the manufacturing censuses. J Econ Hist 42:741–774

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Haines M (1989) A state and local consumer price index for the United States in 1890. Hist Methods 22(3):97–105

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Haines M (2001) The urban mortality transition in the United States, 1800–1940. Annales de Démographie Historique 101(1):33–64

    Google Scholar 

  • Haines M (2004) Growing incomes, shrinking people—can economic development be hazardous to your health? Historical evidence for the United States, England, and the Netherlands in the Nineteenth Century. Soc Sci Hist 28(2):249–270

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Haines M, Craig LA, Weiss T (2003) The short and the dead: nutrition, mortality, and the ‘Antebellum Puzzle’ in the United States. J Econ Hist 63:382–413

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Holick M (2004) Sunlight and vitamin D for bone health and prevention of autoimmune diseases, cancers, and cardiovascular diseases. Am J Clin Nutr Supplement:1678S–1688S

  • Komlos J (1987) The height and weight of west point cadets: dietary change in Antebellum America. J Econ Hist 47:897–927

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Komlos J (1992) Toward an anthropometric history of African-Americans: the case of the free blacks in Antebellum Maryland. In: Goldin C, Rockoff H (eds) Strategic factors in nineteenth century American Economic History: a volume to Honor Robert W. Fogel. National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc, Cambridge, MA, pp 297–392

  • Komlos J (1998) Shrinking in a growing economy? The mystery of physical stature during the industrial revolution. J Econ Hist 58:779–802

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Komlos J (2004) Improvements in maximum likelihood estimators of truncated normal samples with prior knowledge of σ. A simulation based study with application to historical height samples. Discussion paper LMU Munich

  • Komlos J (2007) Anthropometric evidence on economic growth, biological well-being and regional convergence in the Habsburg Monarchy, c. 1850–1910. Cliometrica 1(3):211–237

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lebergott S (1984) The Americans, an economic record. W.W. Norton, New York City, NY

    Google Scholar 

  • Lee C (1997) Socioeconomic background, disease, and mortality among union army recruits: implications for economic and demographic history. Explor Econ Hist 34:27–55

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Margo R, Steckel R (1983) Heights of native born northern whites during the antebellum period. J Econ Hist 43:167–184

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Minnesota Population Center (2004) National Historical Geographic Information System (NHGIS): Pre-release Version 0.1. University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN.http://www.nhgis.org

  • National Archives and Records Administration 7th and Pennsylvania Ave., NW, Washington, DC 20408-0001. Microfilm ID M233. Record Group 094. Register of Enlistments in the US Army, 1798–1914. vol 94 (96%), vol 96 (100%), vol 97(10%), vol 98 (93%), vol 100 (88%),vol 102 (100%), vol 103 (80%), vol 104 (100%), vol 105 (100%)

  • Preston SH, Haines M (1991) Fatal years: child mortality in the late nineteenth-century America. Princeton University Press, Princeton, NJ

    Google Scholar 

  • Rosen G (1944) The medical aspect of the controversy over factory conditions in New England, 1840–1850. Bull Hist Med 15(5):483–497

    Google Scholar 

  • Sobek M (2006) Labor force participation, employment, and unemployment, by sex: 1850–1990. In: Carter SB, Gartner SS, Haines MR, Olmstead AL, Sutch R, Wright G (eds) Table Ba340-354 in Historical Statistics of the United States, earliest times to the present: Millennial Edition. Cambridge University Press, New York

  • Sokoloff K, Villaflor G (1982) The early achievement of modern stature in America. Soc Sci Hist 6(4):453–481

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Steckel R (1995) Stature and the standard of living. J Econ Lit 33(4):1903–1940

    Google Scholar 

  • Steckel R (2000) Diets versus diseases in the anthropometrics of slave children: a reply. J Econ Hist 60(1):247–259

    Google Scholar 

  • Steckel R (2009) Heights and human welfare: recent developments and new directions. Explor Econ Hist 33(4):1–23

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Steckel R, Haurin D (1994) Health and nutrition in the American midwest: evidence from the height of Ohio National Guardsmen, 1850–1910. In: Komlos J (ed) Stature, living standards, and economic development: essays in anthropometric history. The University of Chicago Press, Chicago, pp 117–128

    Google Scholar 

  • Sunder M (2007) Passports and economic development: an anthropometric history of the US Elite in the Nineteenth Century. PhD dissertation. University of Munich

  • Tanner J (1978) Foetus into man: physical growth from conception to maturity. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge

    Google Scholar 

  • Troesken W (2001) Race, disease, and the provision of water in American Cities, 1889–1921. J Econ Hist 61(3):750–776

    Google Scholar 

  • US Bureau of the Census (1975) Historical statistics of the United States, Colonial Times to 1970. US Government Printing Office, Washington, DC

  • Waaler H (1984) Height, weight and mortality: the norwegian experience. Acta Medica Scandinavica Suppl 679:1–51

    Google Scholar 

  • Waring G (1886) Social statistics of cities, Part I. Bureau of the Census http://www2.census.gov/prod2/decennial/documents/1880a_v18-01.pdf. Accessed March 2011

  • Weiss T (2006) Male workforce, by age and race: 1800–1900 [Weiss]. In: Carter SB, Gartner SS, Haines MR, Olmstead AL, Sutch R, Wright G (eds) Table Ba1-10 and “Female workforce, by age and race: 1800–1900 [Weiss]. Table Ba40-49 in Historical Statistics of the United States, Earliest Times to the Present: Millennial Edition. Cambridge University Press, New York

  • Yoo DW (2012) Height and death in the Antebellum United States: a view through the lens of geographically weighted regression. Econ Human Biol 10(1):43–53

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Zehetmayer M (2010) Who is your daddy and what does he do? Stature and family background in the Postbellum US. Unpublished

  • Zehetmayer M (2011) The continuation of the antebellum puzzle: stature in the US, 1847–1894. Eur Rev Econ Hist 15:313–327

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgments

I am extremely grateful for the advice and support of John Komlos. I thank Timothy Cuff, Peggy Sideroff Danna, Michael Specht, Martin Spindler, Thomas Weiss, Gordon Winder, Dong Woo Yoo, and Michael Zabel for helpful comments and conversations.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Volkswirtschaftliche Fakultät (Department of Economics), Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität, Ludwigstr. 33/IV, 80539, Munich, Germany

    Matthias Zehetmayer

Authors
  1. Matthias Zehetmayer
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Matthias Zehetmayer.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Zehetmayer, M. Health, market integration, and the urban height penalty in the US, 1847–1894. Cliometrica 7, 161–187 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11698-012-0085-8

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11698-012-0085-8

Keywords

JEL Classification

Search

Navigation