1 The Anthropometric History of Brazil during the 19th Century Joerg Baten (University of Tuebingen and CESifo) and Ines Pelger (University of Munich) Keywords: Anthropometrics, Height, Welfare, Brazil JEL: O40, N31, N33, I20 Abstract This study focuses on the anthropometric history of Brazil during the 19 th century, and tests hypotheses of the literature concerning welfare trends. We found that non-farm Brazil went through difficult times around the middle of the century, but made substantial progress in nu- tritional status between the 1860s and the 1880s. Resumo Este estudo centra-se na história antropometrica do Brasil durante o século 19, e testa hipóte- ses de literatura sobre tendências do bem-estar social. Nós achamos que o Brasil não agrícola passou por momentos difíceis em meados do século, mas fez um progresso substancial na questão de alimentação entre os anos 1860 e 1880. Introduction Anthropometric evidence can shed light on questions that are otherwise difficult to answer. The biological components of welfare are interesting, as stature differences have often been found to be correlated with health and life expectancy (Komlos 1985, Steckel 1995). In his lecture to the Nobel Prize committee, Robert Fogel (1993) stressed that for Norwegian males in the 1960s and 1970s, a height gap of 17.5 cm increased the probability of dying in the fol- lowing period by no less than 71 percent, clearly a substantial amount. Mounting evidence suggests that increasing heights go along with better cognitive abilities as well as stronger physical robustness. Finally, height can also lead to GDP growth, as Arora (2001) argued. Little is known about welfare trends in Brazil during the early and mid-19 th century. One of