Many humanistic aspects from 'raising national stature'

Photo caption — Opening ceremony of the 2025-2026 school year at Nguyen Chi Dieu Secondary School ( Hue city). Photo: Van Dung/VNA

Many meanings of the word height increase

On September 9, 2025, on behalf of the Politburo , General Secretary To Lam signed and issued Resolution No. 72-NQ/TW "On a number of breakthrough solutions to strengthen the protection, care and improvement of people's health".

Our Party's guiding viewpoint is very clear: Health is the most valuable asset of human beings, the most important foundation for everyone's happiness, for the survival of the nation and the prosperous and sustainable development of the country.

Faced with urgent practical requirements, the work of protecting, caring for and improving people's health needs to be strongly changed in awareness and action; at the same time, comprehensive innovation with breakthrough solutions to aim at the goal of building a healthy Vietnam, where all people receive health care, live long, live well, and live healthily.

Resolution 72 sets the target for 2030: Improve the physical strength, intelligence, stature and healthy life expectancy of the people. By 2030, increase the average height of children and adolescents from 1-18 years old by at least 1.5cm; average life expectancy reaches 75.5 years, of which the number of healthy years reaches at least 68 years.

Increasing the height of adolescents is meaningful because it is not only closely related to the socio -economic development aspects of the country over time, but it is also an indicator of the effectiveness of policies for women, children, education - health, social justice, lifestyle - culture...

According to Our World in Data - a publication of the UK-based Global Change Data organization, the average height of a community can tell us a lot about a country or a population.

Human height is partly determined by genetics. However, non-genetic environmental factors – such as an individual's nutrition and health status during infancy, childhood and adolescence – also influence the average height of a population.

A study of male heights in 105 countries determined that in many cases height and the Human Development Index (HDI) can be used interchangeably to measure well-being.

Nutrition is one of the strongest determinants of human height. A study of diets in countries shows that there is a strong link between the consumption of animal-based foods and height. In countries with a higher intake of animal protein, residents are taller on average than residents in countries that consume mainly plant protein (wheat, rice, etc.).

Animal protein becomes an increasingly important part of the diet of people as their income increases, so there is a clear link between income and height. A country with a high level of socio-economic development tends to have an increasing average height of its residents.

Differences in average heights across different segments of a country’s population also reflect socio-economic inequality. Unequal access to resources within a community means that wealthier individuals have better health care and nutrition, and therefore tend to be taller than poorer individuals.

Is 1.5cm increase much or little?

The average height of children and adolescents from 1 to 18 years old will increase by at least 1.5cm by 2030 - this increase is quite high and is not an easy goal if we know that in Vietnam there are currently about 30 million people under 18 years old and there is not much time left to achieve it.

The 2020 survey on Vietnamese stature shows that young men (18 years old) in our country have an average height of 168.1cm, women are 156.2cm tall. Children in the city are 2cm taller than children in rural and mountainous areas.

Thus, the height of young men increased by 3.7 cm compared to 2010 (164.4 cm), and young women increased by 2.6 cm compared to 2010 (153.6 cm).

Currently, Vietnam ranks 4th in Southeast Asia in terms of average height, just behind Singapore (men 172cm), Thailand (170cm) and Malaysia (169cm). The average height of Vietnamese people compared to the world has a big difference (men 176.1cm, women 163.1cm), ranking 153/201 countries and territories.

Due to the continuous war and the harsh life in the post-war period, the subsidy period, for nearly half a century, the height of Vietnamese youth "stood still", sometimes even decreased. Let's compare: In 1938, the average height of Vietnamese adults was 160cm for men, 151cm for women and by 1985 it was 159.8cm for men, 150.5cm for women.

Our Party and State pay great attention to people's health issues, including improving the height of adolescents as stated in Resolution 72.

Height is not simply a matter of physical appearance but also an important indicator related to public health, population quality and sustainable national development.

Dr. Truong Hong Son, Director of the Vietnam Institute of Applied Medicine, said: The rate of stunting in Vietnamese children has dropped sharply from 50% to about 20%. However, up to 50% of children still do not reach the international height standard. This is an alarming number, showing that we have not effectively taken advantage of the "golden stages" in children's physical development.

Being short not only affects appearance but is also closely related to the risk of non-communicable diseases such as cardiovascular disease, diabetes, bone and joint diseases and obesity. For example, a person weighing 60kg and 170cm tall will have a normal BMI. But with a height of only 150cm, the BMI will fall into the overweight range, thereby increasing the risk of chronic diseases.

In a family, if the father is 168cm tall and the mother is 156cm tall, the son can reach a height of 168cm to 174cm. But to approach or exceed this height limit, the key factor is still early and proper intervention during the growth stages.

The Party and the State set policies, and the authorities implement them. However, the role of the family is of key importance.

Many parents in Vietnam are not aware of the importance of micronutrients in height development. During pregnancy, iron deficiency, folic acid deficiency or calcium deficiency is still common. After giving birth, many families only focus on "eating well, gaining weight" but do not pay attention to essential micronutrients such as vitamin D, K2, zinc, iron, which play a decisive role in bone and height development.

Dr. Truong Hong Son emphasized: “Height only develops until about 19 years old. There are three golden periods: the first 1,000 days of life (from the womb to 2 years old), pre-school period and puberty. Missing any day means losing the opportunity to grow taller that day.”

Source: https://baotintuc.vn/chinh-sach-va-cuoc-song/nhieu-khia-canh-nhan-van-tu-viec-nang-tam-voc-dan-toc-20250917091644215.htm