Living Standards, Nutrition and Inequality in the Spanish Industrialisation. An Anthropometric View

Abstract

This article presents an overview of the study of living standards in Spain from the perspective of anthropometric history and new data from recent research. The aim is to examine changes in nutrition during the industrial age through anthropometric indicators. The paper provides new evidence on the changes in height among different socioeconomic groups and its relation with health and human well-being in different periods and geographical regions. It also explores inequality before and during the process of industrialisation. In addition to tracking the effects of environmental changes on well-being and inequality between the proto-industrial period in the eighteenth century and the industrial leap in the beginning of the second half of the twentieth century, it explores the costs of industrialisation in biological standards of living in the short- and the long-term. Finally, it suggests future directions of research.