Kukpyowon Announcement on Child and Adolescent Physical Data
Children visiting Children's Grand Park in Gwangjin-gu, Seoul are having a joyful time. Photo by Jinhyung Kang aymsdream@
The average height of elementary school boys in South Korea was found to be 139.2 cm, an increase of 4.3 cm compared to 10 years ago. The average height of elementary school girls increased by 2.8 cm during the same period, reaching 137.1 cm.
On the 2nd, ahead of Children's Day, the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy's National Institute of Technology and Standards held the 'Size Korea Performance Presentation' at Lotte World Tower in Seoul and announced the results of a body measurement survey conducted on 1,118 children and adolescents aged 7 to 19 (571 boys and 547 girls) in South Korea.
This survey was conducted from April to December last year using a three-dimensional (3D) scanner to measure a total of 314 items including height, weight, leg and arm length, and waist circumference.
The results showed that compared to 2013, 10 years ago, the average height of Korean children and adolescents increased by 4.3 cm (boys) and 2.8 cm (girls) for elementary school students, 7.4 cm (boys) and 3.3 cm (girls) for middle school students, and 2.2 cm (boys) and 1.9 cm (girls) for high school students.
The average height of elementary school boys was 139.2 cm, middle school boys 165.3 cm, and high school boys 173.2 cm. The average height of elementary school girls was 137.1 cm, middle school girls 158.4 cm, and high school girls 161.7 cm.
The growth gap between boys and girls begins to appear significantly after age 12, starting from middle school, with differences in height and weight increasing from 3.1 cm and 5.1 kg at age 12 (6th grade elementary) to 13.8 cm and 13.4 kg at age 17 (3rd grade high school).
The period when growth in body length such as height and foot length reaches its maximum and shows saturation has advanced by about two years compared to the past, from 16 to 14 years for boys and from 15 to 13 years for girls.
At the performance presentation attended by related industry-academic-research stakeholders, the National Institute of Technology and Standards shared utilization cases such as a 3D shape-based body type classification model in addition to the children and adolescents’ body measurement survey results, and discussed the future direction of the Size Korea project.
Jin Jong-wook, head of the National Institute of Technology and Standards, said, "The latest body data of children and adolescents is expected to be directly used in product, space, and service design to improve convenience for future generations," adding, "We will actively strive to ensure that body data is integrated with advanced technologies and expanded for use in new industries such as healthcare services and digital identity recognition and security."
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