ANTHROPOMETRY

Anthropometry is the scientific study of the measurements of the human body. It refers to the measurement of living human individuals for the purposes of understanding human physical variation.

Anthropometry plays an important role in industrial design, clothing design, ergonomics, and architecture, where statistical data about the distribution of body dimensions in the population are used to optimize products. Changes in life styles, nutrition and ethnic composition of populations lead to changes in the distribution of body dimensions (example, the obesity epidemic), and require regular updating of anthropometric data collections.