They Wear Shorter Skirts in the North of the U.K.

An article in that fine paper, Daily Mail, reported that women who lived in the north of the U.K. tend to wear shorter skirts, despite the colder weather.

To quote the article:

"A cold spell gripping Britain might seem like a reason to wrap up warm.

But it seems that women in the North and Scotland haven't been affected by the freezing temperatures.
Researchers have found that like temperatures which have plunged to -17c, mini skirts in the area are the shortest in the country.

Northern lasses wear skirts that are on average 17cm shorter than girls in the south.

Debenhams found that the average skirt length in Edinburgh is just 30cm. In Glasgow and Preston it is 32cm and in Liverpool women's skirts are on average 33cm long.

The study also found further south in the country the skirts become longer with girls in Bournemouth wearing skirts 47cm long."


Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1333834/Dressed-chill-Sales-short-skirts-North-soar-despite-plunging-temperatures.html#ixzz16gwaNgsy
 
Here's specific data:
 
1.Edinburgh 30cm

2.Preston/Glasgow 32cm

4.Liverpool 33cm

5.Newcastle/Blackpool 34cm

7.Manchester 36cm

8.Norwich 42cm

9.Reading 44cm

10.Cantebury/Southampton 46cm

12.Bournemouth 47cm

I have some questions:

1.  What is the length of girls' skirts in Aberdeen, the northernmost city in Scotland?

2.  Why have the researchers ignored the role of stockings, pantyhose, leggings, or even long johns in providing warmth to the legs?

And an observation:

This sort of thing has a precedent in the history of psychology. Sir Francis Galton empirically determined a "beauty map" of Britain:



"I may here speak of some attempts by myself, to obtain materials for a 'Beauty Map" of the British Isles. Whenever I have occasion to classify the persons I meet into three classes, "good, medium, bad," I use a needle mounted as a pricker, wherewith to prick holes, unseen, in a piece of paper, torn rudely into a cross with a long leg. I use its upper end for "good", the cross arm for "medium," the lower end for "bad." The prick-holes keep distinct, and are easily read off at leisure. The object, place, and date are written on the paper. I used this plan for my beauty data, classifying the girls I passed in streets or elsewhere as attractive, indifferent, or repellent. Of course this was a purely individual estimate, but it was consistent, judging from the conformity of different attempts in the same population. I found London to rank highest for beauty: Aberdeen lowest.

Sir Francis Galton "Memories of My Life", p 315


Needless to say, this would have gone over like a lead balloon today!


Maybe some obsessive-compulsive person could do a similar map of the United States. And empirically determine the validity of the Michigan girls jokes.