Differences in height by education among 371,105 Dutch military conscripts

•Conscript examinations show a 5.1 cm height gradient across education level.•The height gradient is evident within all levels of paternal occupation.•The gradient cannot be explained by common height determinants.•Confounding by other factors, including cognitive ability, needs further study.

Adult height is associated with a variety of familial and socio-economic factors and large, well-defined populations are needed for a reliable assessment of their relative contributions. We therefore analyzed recorded heights from the military health examinations of 18-year conscripts in the Netherlands born between 1944 and 1947 and observed large differences by their attained education and by their father's occupation. The 5.1 cm height gradient from lowest to highest education level was more than twice as large as the gradient between father's occupation levels. The education gradient was not explained by common determinants of height including paternal occupation as a measure of familial background, region of birth, family size, or religion.