Abstract:

There are different views in the academic community regarding the latitudinal division of physical types in southern and northern China. In this paper, we wish to explore the latitudinal demarcation of the north-south body type from the values of the eight body indexes in 62 populations totaling 44,969 cases (19,883 males and 25,086 females). Through partial correlation analysis, it is found that latitude and body indexes are still significantly correlated under the condition that the control variables are per capita disposable income, annual average precipitation, annual average light and annual average temperature. Combining the results of the male and female bias correlation analyses, the height-weight index is the most suitable index for latitudinal demarcation analyses of north-south body types. Principal component analysis confirms that the characteristics of the Chinese population are divided into northern and southern types, and that there are no Han and Tibetan-Burmese types in addition to the northern and southern body types. The differences of body index values between Chinese ethnic groups are mainly reflected in three indexes: BMI, height-weight index, and height-chest circumference index. Compared with the southern Chinese male population, the northern male population is relatively obese, with higher percentage body fat, heavier weight and wider chest. The body weight of northern females are generally higher than that of southern females. Based on the distribution of communities in the middle zone of the aggregation area of the southern and northern community loci, the transition zone between the southern and northern types is inferred to be 30.0°~35.0°N. latitude. Through the scatter plot analysis of latitude versus height-weight index, it is found that the majority of the southern population loci are distributed below the left side of 30.0°N, and the majority of the northern population loci are distributed above the right side of 35.0°N. Moreover, there is a significant difference between the left side of 30.0° and the right side of 35.0°in terms of population characteristics. These confirm the suitability of 30.0° to 35.0° as the transition zone between the southern and northern types of China. Therefore, this paper suggests that 30.0°N latitude is the upper limit of the latitudinal distribution of the southern type of population, 35.0°N latitude is the lower limit of the latitudinal distribution of the northern type of population, and 30.0°N latitude to 35.0°N latitude is the transition area of the distribution of the characteristic types of the southern and northern body parts in China.

Key words: peoples, latitude, body mass, height, chest circumference