Acceleration (human development)
human development process
Acceleration in human development process is the phenomenon which has been registered in many populations around the world. This applies equally to the growth of certain anthropometric parameters and the speed of reaching sexual maturity. These facts illustrate the results of secular changes in body height and appearance of the first menstruation (menarche).
Increases in human stature are a main indicator of improvements in the average health of populations. The newest data set for the average height of adult male birth cohorts, from the mid-nineteenth century to 1980, in 15 European countries was studied (in the populations listed).
During a century average height increased by 11 cm, representing a dramatic improvement of this phenomenon. The apparent acceleration of body height occurred during the periods around the two World Wars and after the Great Depression.
In the mid-nineteenth century, European girls' menarche occurred at the average age of 16.5 years. One hundred years later, this age was reduced to under 12 years.
Increase in adult height of birth cohorts (cm/decade)
Secular acceleration
The term "secular acceleration" encompasses:
an increase in human height;
the shift of menarche and menopause in women to a later age; this form of acceleration is disputed, or there may even be a decrease in age;
the rise in life expectancy.
“Acceleration (human development)” enters the record as human development process. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Acceleration, human and development can confirm, complicate or overturn.
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Vocabulary and entity names are the principal evidence signals here, because they determine the precision of every later search. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jul 14, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q424458. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 1980.
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This entry incorporates text from “Acceleration (human development)” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.