Structural anthropometric measurements of the Canadian adult population: the fallacy of the ‘average person’ concept

Abstract

The objectives of this investigation are to: (1) present the structural anthropometric measurements of the Canadian adult male and female population in a manner that can be readily applied by designers and (2) clarify the fallacy of the ‘average person’ concept on the basis of the anthropometric data obtained from this research. The descriptive statistics of Canadian male and female anthropometric measurements are presented in terms of 5th, 50th and 95th percentiles and standard deviations, especially to facilitate the design of industrial workstations, equipment and tools. The fallacy of the ‘average person’ concept is that no one is average in all body dimensions and only a few persons in several dimensions. This was demonstrated in the body dimensions data obtained from this investigation. It was shown that body dimensions, expressed in percentile ranks, are not uniformly or constantly proportional to stature. A statistical test was performed to confirm this inference.

Keywords:

• structural anthropometric measurements
• Canadian adult population
• fallacy of the ‘average person’
• percentile ranks
• industrial workstation design

Acknowledgements

The contribution made by Dr. John W. Kozey during the preparation of this article is duly acknowledged. This research was funded by the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council (NSERC) of Canada.