Bigger in the USA

It is seems to be common for those from other countries that visit our country to notice that almost everything is bigger in the United States of America.

For example, consider this article from the website InterExchange.org which caters to young foreigners who wish to study, work and intern in the United States.

As an international intern or trainee, you have probably noticed many differences between American culture and that of your home country. One of the biggest differences is that things in the U.S. tend to be a bit larger than in the rest of the world!

The article goes on to document some of the size differences between the United States and the rest of the world.

Soft drink sizes that have increased by 52% over the last 20 years.

U.S. stores are, on average, twice the size of their European counterparts.

The average U.S. grocery store stocks 40,000 unique items, more than twice the 18,000 that European groceries maintain.

The size of American cars compared to foreign models and the higher proportion of trucks and SUV's on the road.

The size of American homes which has seen the average size increase from 1,500 sf to 2,500 sf since 1970.

The United States is also bigger in one other area that is not mentioned in the article that I had not considered until I ran across a research study in The Journal of Female Health Sciences (the breadth of depth of the reading and research that BeeLine does is truly without bounds!).

The size of women's breasts.

The headline of the study is "Scientific Analysis Reveals Major Differences In The Breast Sizes Of Women In Different Countries".  

What really caught my attention was the sub-title, "U.S. women have a significantly larger mean breast volume than women born in other countries."

It is a most revealing and well-researched article encompassed 342,000 individual breast size measurements from 108 different countries. For consistency, only women between the ages of 28-30 were included in the final analysis. The measurement data was supplemented with 3D breast size scanning technology. The place of birth was determinative as to the country which each woman was assigned in the study.

For a numbers guy like me there was a lot of data to discern in the research.

These were the countries with the largest breast sizes based on volumes in milliliters.

Credit: Brobible.com using The Journal of Female Health Sciences data

 These were the countries with the smallest breast sizes.

Credit: Brobible.com using The Journal of Female Health Sciences data

You can view the data for all countries here.

It is quite interesting data when you consider the variation in the mean breast volumes between countries. It is even more stunning when you look at the United States compared to everyone else.

For example, breast size in the U.S. is 15 times that of The Phillipines. In fact, U.S. (Caucasian) breast size is a full 40% larger than 2nd place Canada. U.S. women's breasts are also more than 2.5 times larger than those of women from Germany, Norway or Sweden.

I guess Georg and Yortuk Festrunk the "wild and crazy" Czech brothers on Saturday Night Live in the 1970's (played by Steve Martin and Dan Akyroyd) really knew what they were talking about when wishing to date American girls. (Link to video)

"Two wild and crazy guys."
Saturday Night Live-1978

Lest you believe that breast size in the United States is somehow related to the size of our soft drinks or fast food options, obesity rates do not seem to factor into the numbers based on the research study.

This is the relevant commentary from the report on the correlation between weight and breast size.

A typical woman born in the U.S.A. or Canada has a very large breast volume regardless of her body weight. In many other countries a large cup size is closely associated with a higher than average body weight. 

This association was particularly evident in the United Kingdom and Spain. In the U.S.A. and Canada also sporty and fit women have very large breasts compared to women born in the other countries.

52 % of the U.S. born Caucasian women with BMI 21 – 24 had the factual breast cup size “F” or larger (EU standard). Among the women born in the other countries the largest breast size was very uncommon in this BMI category (<4%).

Left unstated in the research study is any complete answer as to why the United States outstrips the rest of the world in breast sizes.

One reason for the difference is the fact that North American women tend to have different shaped breasts than are seen in the rest of the world. This greatly affects breast volume as the study explains.

In the most countries of the world the average woman has “pear-shaped” breasts. From the practical point of view this means that the breasts rest on the bottom of the bra cup and the breast tissue fills mainly the lower part of the cup. As a direct consequence of this the aperture area and the bra top do not contain breast tissue to any significant extent.

In contrast, a typical U.S. woman has hemisphere-shaped i.e., “round” breasts that fill also the upper part of the bra cup. Consequently, also the aperture area and the bra top are filled with breast tissue.

Read the entire 25 pages of the research study if you are interested in all breast shape categories, nipple position, angle and other breast worthy topics, including why this research is important for the global lingerie industry.

I guess everything really is bigger in the USA.

Well...almost everything.