Height is an extremely sensitive indicator of general living conditions, with factors including illness and infection, stress, poverty and sleep quality alongside the quality and quantity of diets.

“Wider data on the height of 19-year-olds suggested that growing up in the 2010s which happens to coincide with the period of austerity . . . tells me that austerity has clobbered the height of children in the UK”: [Professor Tim Cole, an expert in child growth rates at the Great Ormond Street Institute of Child Health, University College London.]

The indelible mark of austerity – owl

Kat Lay www.thetimes.co.uk

Five-year-olds in Britain are on average up to seven centimetres shorter than their peers in other wealthy nations, in a trend described as “pretty startling”.

A poor national diet has been highlighted as a major culprit in Britain’s fall down international rankings of child height.

The average five-year-old boy in the UK is 112.5cm tall, against 119.6cm in the Netherlands — the comparable country with the tallest children. The average girl is 111.7cm tall, while her Dutch counterpart would be 118.4cm tall.

The data is taken from national measurement programmes, collated by the Non-Communicable Diseases Risk Factor Collaboration, a global network of health scientists.

In 1985 British boys and girls ranked 69 out of 200 countries for average height aged five. At the time they were on average 111.4 and 111 cm tall respectively. British boys are now 102nd, and girls 96th.

“They’ve fallen by 30 places, which is pretty startling,” said Professor Tim Cole, an expert in child growth rates at the Great Ormond Street Institute of Child Health, University College London. “The question is why?”

The professor, who was not involved in the most recent study, said wider data on the height of 19-year-olds suggested that growing up in the 2010s “which happens to coincide with the period of austerity . . . tells me that austerity has clobbered the height of children in the UK”.

Cole said height was an extremely sensitive indicator of general living conditions, with factors including illness and infection, stress, poverty and sleep quality all “piled up in there” alongside the quality and quantity of diets.

“It’s quite clear we are falling behind, relative to Europe,” he added. “But it’s telling that at age five, we are looking further behind than we are at age 19, which suggests to me that the last 14 years from age five to 19 has been particularly rough for UK children.”

Henry Dimbleby, the former government food adviser, highlighted height discrepancies between Britain and other countries in his National Food Strategy, published in 2021 and again in his new book, Ravenous.

He said: “In modern Britain, the way we eat is one of the clearest markers of inequality. You can actually see it with the naked eye. A diet of cheap junk food has the peculiar quality that it can make you simultaneously overweight and undernourished.

“Children in the poorest areas of England are both fatter and significantly shorter than those in the richest areas at age ten to eleven. This is a big enough problem to have an impact at an international level. The average five-year-old in the UK is shorter than their peers in nearly all other high-income countries.”

In France the average five year old boy is 114.7cm tall and the average girl 113.6cm. In Germany they are 114.8 and 113.3 respectively. Danish boys are on average 117.4cm tall, and Danish girls 118.1cm.

Dimbleby said that GPs in poorer areas have reported an “extraordinary” resurgence of Victorian diseases such as rickets and scurvy, “largely caused by nutritional deficiencies”.

NHS data shows that about 700 children a year are admitted to hospital with malnutrition, rickets or scurvy in England.

Separate annual surveys of diet and nutrition show that children from the poorest fifth of families consume about a third less fruit and vegetables, 75 per cent less oily fish, and a fifth less fibre than children from the most well off families.

The Food Foundation, a nutrition charity, said the disparities “raise questions about the nutritional quality of food that children are able to access”, and that height was “likely [to be] representative of broader development of the child”.

Anna Taylor, the charity’s executive director, said figures from the 2021-22 national child measurement programme showed that white British children living in the most deprived areas in England continued to be shorter than those living in the least — 0.6cm for girls and 1.3cm for boys by age ten to eleven.

She added: “There are several factors that contribute to a child’s height including genetics, ethnicity, smoking and diet. However, academic studies indicate that infancy is most influenced by external factors rather than genetics.”

Dietary inequalities also appeared to drive higher rates of problems such as obesity, type 2 diabetes and dental decay in children from poorer backgrounds, Taylor said.

“It’s essential that healthy food is accessible and affordable for all, particularly during the cost of living crisis when budgets are stretched and food prices are increasing. We need strong, preventive policies that can improve access and affordability to nutritious food and shape healthy food environments.”

A government spokesman said: “There are a range of factors that can impact children’s growth, which are not just limited to diet, and we’re taking steps to support families by providing record financial support to families who need it most — a £94 billion cost of living support package worth around £3,300 per household.

“We are supporting the NHS to tackle some of the key root causes of poor nutrition, and our Healthy Food Schemes help more than three million children get the nutrition they need.

“We’re also promoting healthier lifestyles for children by investing over £600 million in school sport over the next two years, while our sugar reduction programme has seen dramatic reductions in the sugar content in foods eaten by children.”