Anthropometric studies are today conducted for numerous different purposes. Academic
anthropologists investigate the evolutionary significance of differences in body proportion between populations whose ancestors lived in different environmental settings. 

Outside academia, scientists working for private companies and government agencies conduct anthropometric studies to determine what range of sizes clothing and other items need to be manufactured in. A basically antropometric division of body types into the categories endomorphic,  ectomorphic  and  mesomorphic  derived from Sheldon’s somatotype theories is today popular among people doing weight training.

Today people are performing anthropometry with three-dimensional scanners. The subject has a three-dimensional scan taken of their body, and the anthropometrist extracts measurements from the scan rather than directly from the individual. This is beneficial for the anthropometrist in that they can use this scan to extract any measurement at any time.

It is these biometrics that have given birth to the term Anthropo-Biometrics, which have completely revolutionized the empire of anthropometry and anthropology.