The Harpenden Growth Study consisted of 701 white British children, 282 girls and 419 boys, born between 1929 and 1965 (median 1949) and recruited from the Highfield Children’s Home, Harpenden, UK between 1949 and 1969 at ages between 0.9 and 20 years. They were predominantly children of manual workers or the lower middle class. The dataset includes serial anthropometric measurements (e.g., weight, height, and subcutaneous skinfold thicknesses), Tanner stages of pubertal development, and skeletal age estimates from hand-wrist x-rays. In total, there are 8,188 observations (i.e., 11.6 per child on average) making Harpenden one of the most intensive growth studies ever. Data collection ended in 1975. All of the data were collected by a single, highly skilled, and experienced anthropometrist (Reginald Whitehouse) and, as such, are of very high quality.
