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kismet09Sizing Up America: Signs of Expansion From Head to Toe
By KATE ZERNIKE
Published: March 1, 2004
For the first time since World War II, a national survey has sized up the average American body, not just by weight and height or even the standard chest-waist-hip routine, but in more than 240 measurements tip to toe. The results confirm what other statistics have shown: that Americans have grown. In their sheer detail, the measurements also show just how and where — an intimate portrait of the national body with all its Lycra-ed love handles, sucked-in stomachs and fashionably disguised spare tires. The survey - called SizeUSA and sponsored by clothing and textile companies, the Army, Navy and several universities - measured more than 10,000 people in 13 cities nationwide using a light-pulsing 3-D scanner...
Over all, the new measurements shake up what have long been considered the average outlines of the American body. For years, an average woman was thought to be a size 8, although some circles had bumped that up to size 12 in recent years. But even the women who came in on the small side in the SizeUSA survey look more like what the longtime clothing industry standards would consider a size 14 - the size at which "plus size" clothing begins.
Industry standards set a size 8 at a 35-inch bust, a 27-inch waist, and 37.5-inch hip. In the survey, white women ages 18 to 25 came in, on average, 38-32-41, with white women ages 36 to 45 coming in at 41-34-43. (Barbie, long the plastic bane of body image, is said to have measurements that project to about 39-18-33.) In that same age group, black women measure, on average, 43-37-46, Hispanic women 42.5-36-44, and "other" women, which researchers said meant mostly Asian, 41-35-43...
SizeUSA surveyed people at department stores and corporate office buildings, at a trade show, an outlet mall, and on university and college campuses. Researchers weighted their sample according to a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention study of average height and weight to make sure they did not count too many people who were especially heavy or light, short or tall.
When the C.D.C. completed its study, in 1994, the median weight for women was 144 pounds, for men, 176 pounds. The SizeUSA median height remained the same (5 feet 4 inches for women, 5 feet 9 inches for men), but the median weight increased by four pounds for each sex.
But the numbers suggested that people have not simply gotten bigger; they have gotten rounder in the middle. Women whose busts fit a standard size 8 were 2 inches bigger than the standard in the waist, and an inch bigger in the hips. Women who fit a size 16 in the waist were 2 inches smaller than the standard in the hips and 1.5 inches smaller in the bust.
Measurements did not differ much by region or by education — the average weight of the men and women combined was about 155 pounds whether people had less than a high school diploma or more than a college degree. People who earned up to $25,000 a year weighed an average of 152 pounds — 8 pounds less than the average for those who earned $50,000-$75,000, but about the same as people who earned more than $75,000.
The real differences were between race and ethnicities, and age groups. White women were most likely to have a protruding stomach, sticking out an inch or more from the waist - what Mr. Lovejoy called "a little bit of a tummy." Eleven percent of white women were labeled thus, compared with 3 percent of Hispanic women, 4 percent of black women, and 7 percent of those classified "other." Twenty percent of Hispanic women had "full waists" compared with 10 percent of white women, and 15 percent of black...
Asked for their perception of how much they weighed, 51 percent of men and 38 percent of women said they were "about the right weight." Ten percent of men said they were "quite a bit overweight"; among women, 21 percent said the same.
By KATE ZERNIKE
Published: March 1, 2004
For the first time since World War II, a national survey has sized up the average American body, not just by weight and height or even the standard chest-waist-hip routine, but in more than 240 measurements tip to toe. The results confirm what other statistics have shown: that Americans have grown. In their sheer detail, the measurements also show just how and where — an intimate portrait of the national body with all its Lycra-ed love handles, sucked-in stomachs and fashionably disguised spare tires. The survey - called SizeUSA and sponsored by clothing and textile companies, the Army, Navy and several universities - measured more than 10,000 people in 13 cities nationwide using a light-pulsing 3-D scanner...
Over all, the new measurements shake up what have long been considered the average outlines of the American body. For years, an average woman was thought to be a size 8, although some circles had bumped that up to size 12 in recent years. But even the women who came in on the small side in the SizeUSA survey look more like what the longtime clothing industry standards would consider a size 14 - the size at which "plus size" clothing begins.
Industry standards set a size 8 at a 35-inch bust, a 27-inch waist, and 37.5-inch hip. In the survey, white women ages 18 to 25 came in, on average, 38-32-41, with white women ages 36 to 45 coming in at 41-34-43. (Barbie, long the plastic bane of body image, is said to have measurements that project to about 39-18-33.) In that same age group, black women measure, on average, 43-37-46, Hispanic women 42.5-36-44, and "other" women, which researchers said meant mostly Asian, 41-35-43...
SizeUSA surveyed people at department stores and corporate office buildings, at a trade show, an outlet mall, and on university and college campuses. Researchers weighted their sample according to a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention study of average height and weight to make sure they did not count too many people who were especially heavy or light, short or tall.
When the C.D.C. completed its study, in 1994, the median weight for women was 144 pounds, for men, 176 pounds. The SizeUSA median height remained the same (5 feet 4 inches for women, 5 feet 9 inches for men), but the median weight increased by four pounds for each sex.
But the numbers suggested that people have not simply gotten bigger; they have gotten rounder in the middle. Women whose busts fit a standard size 8 were 2 inches bigger than the standard in the waist, and an inch bigger in the hips. Women who fit a size 16 in the waist were 2 inches smaller than the standard in the hips and 1.5 inches smaller in the bust.
Measurements did not differ much by region or by education — the average weight of the men and women combined was about 155 pounds whether people had less than a high school diploma or more than a college degree. People who earned up to $25,000 a year weighed an average of 152 pounds — 8 pounds less than the average for those who earned $50,000-$75,000, but about the same as people who earned more than $75,000.
The real differences were between race and ethnicities, and age groups. White women were most likely to have a protruding stomach, sticking out an inch or more from the waist - what Mr. Lovejoy called "a little bit of a tummy." Eleven percent of white women were labeled thus, compared with 3 percent of Hispanic women, 4 percent of black women, and 7 percent of those classified "other." Twenty percent of Hispanic women had "full waists" compared with 10 percent of white women, and 15 percent of black...
Asked for their perception of how much they weighed, 51 percent of men and 38 percent of women said they were "about the right weight." Ten percent of men said they were "quite a bit overweight"; among women, 21 percent said the same.
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