Past studies of the Chinese Great Leap Forward famine focus on its causality or the
economics effects, but few examine the welfare of the survivors. Thirty million
people may have died. Human height, an indicator of nutrition, is used to examine the
impact on the survivors of the famine who were born from the late 1950s to the early
1960s. Data are from a survey of 112,000 industrial workers born between the 1940s
and 1970s and surveys of children since the 1950s. Trends in average stature for the
first time enable us to quantify the impact on the welfare of the survivors.