Living standards and rural-urban height gap during the early stages of modern economic growth in Spain

This paper examines the urban-rural differences of the height during the early stages of modern economic growth and industrialization in Spain. Its aim is to explore the extent of the urban penalty, and the changes of biological welfare in the cities and villages, in the rural and urban areas. We use height data of military recruitment records between 1857 and 1936, that provide information on the health and net nutrition of cohorts 1837-1915. We note that previous studies reported higher penalty in rural areas than in cities, and that the height deteriorated in the most industrialized cities due to unhealthy environments, child labor and spread of infections. The new data shows that in some rural areas had better nutritional status that in urban areas with better care resources, so the rural-urban gap was more diverse than we thought, not only by environmental factors but institutions. Data suggests more research on height by social classes in the diverse Spanish geography.