One inch is exactly 2.54 cm, so one foot is 30.48 cm.
To convert a height in centimetres, divide by 2.54 to get total inches, then divide that by 12 —
the whole number is your feet, the remainder is your inches.
164 cm → 164 ÷ 2.54 = 64.57 inches → 64.57 ÷ 12 = 5 feet with 4.57 inches left over → 5 ft 4.6 in, or 5′5″ rounded.
Convert it here
Why this conversion catches people out
Most unit conversions are a single multiplication. Kilometres to miles, kilograms to pounds, Celsius to Fahrenheit — one number in, one number out. Height is different, and that is the whole difficulty.
The answer is two numbers, not one
A metric height is a single figure: 164 cm. The imperial equivalent is a pair — feet and inches — and you cannot read one off from the other by multiplying. You have to convert, then split the result into two parts.
Inches don't wrap at ten
There are twelve inches in a foot, not ten, so the second number rolls over at 12. This is why
5.5 feet is not 5 ft 5 in. Five and a half feet is 5 ft 6 in,
because half of twelve is six. Writing a height as a decimal number of feet is almost always a mistake.
Converting centimetres to feet and inches
Three steps, and the middle one is where people stop too early.
Step 1 — get the total inches
Divide the centimetres by 2.54. For 180 cm: 180 ÷ 2.54 = 70.87 inches.
Step 2 — split into feet
Divide the total inches by 12 and keep only the whole number.
70.87 ÷ 12 = 5.9, so that's 5 feet.
Step 3 — find the leftover inches
Multiply the feet back out and subtract: 5 × 12 = 60, and
70.87 − 60 = 10.87 inches. So 180 cm is
5 ft 10.9 in, usually written 5′11″.
The common error is stopping after step 2 and reading 5.9 as "five foot nine". It isn't
— the .9 is nine tenths of a foot, which is nearly eleven inches.
Converting feet and inches to centimetres
This direction is easier, because the answer is a single number. Turn the height entirely into inches, then multiply by 2.54.
For 5 ft 7 in: (5 × 12) + 7 = 67 inches, and
67 × 2.54 = 170.18 cm.
The rounding trap worth knowing about
Round-numbered heights in one system are never round numbers in the other, and the figures that circulate online are usually rounded twice.
| Height | Exact | Commonly quoted |
|---|---|---|
| 5′6″ | 167.64 cm | 168 cm |
| 5′10″ | 177.80 cm | 178 cm |
| 6′0″ | 182.88 cm | 183 cm |
| 6′2″ | 187.96 cm | 188 cm |
A single rounding is harmless. The problem is converting back: take the rounded 183 cm and convert it to imperial and you get 6 ft 0.05 in. Do that a few times — a form here, a profile there — and small errors accumulate into a height that doesn't match your own records.
If something asks for an exact figure, convert once from the measurement you actually took, and keep the decimal.
Quick reference
Centimetres to feet and inches
| cm | Feet & inches | cm | Feet & inches |
|---|---|---|---|
| 150 | 4 ft 11.1 in | 175 | 5 ft 8.9 in |
| 155 | 5 ft 1.0 in | 180 | 5 ft 10.9 in |
| 160 | 5 ft 3.0 in | 185 | 6 ft 0.8 in |
| 164 | 5 ft 4.6 in | 190 | 6 ft 2.8 in |
| 165 | 5 ft 5.0 in | 195 | 6 ft 4.8 in |
| 170 | 5 ft 6.9 in | 200 | 6 ft 6.7 in |
Feet and inches to centimetres
| Height | cm | Height | cm |
|---|---|---|---|
| 5′0″ | 152.4 | 5′9″ | 175.3 |
| 5′3″ | 160.0 | 6′0″ | 182.9 |
| 5′6″ | 167.6 | 6′3″ | 190.5 |
"EU height" and "UK height" — what people usually mean
This is one of the most common ways the question gets asked, and it's worth untangling, because there is no such thing as a European height measurement or a British one. There are only two systems: metric and imperial.
Most of the world uses centimetres
Continental Europe, Asia, Africa, South America and Australia all record height in centimetres. If a form, medical record or ID document from any of those places asks for your height, it wants a single number in cm.
The United States uses feet and inches
Both conversationally and officially. This is the one place where the imperial figure is the default on paperwork.
The UK does both, which is the actual source of confusion
British people almost always say their height in feet and inches — "five foot eight" — while official forms, medical notes and NHS records use centimetres. So someone searching "EU to UK height" is usually not comparing two countries at all. They have a number in one system and need it in the other, and the UK happens to be the place where you routinely need both in the same week.
Writing your height on a form
Three things that save trouble:
- Check which unit is being asked for. A field labelled only "height" on an international form usually means centimetres.
- Don't convert a converted number. Go back to the original measurement each time rather than translating a figure you already translated.
- Keep one decimal place if the form allows it. 177.8 is more useful than 178 if anything later needs the imperial equivalent.
Frequently asked questions
177.8 cm exactly. It is often quoted as 178 cm, which is rounded up by two millimetres.
Because 72 inches × 2.54 = 182.88 cm. The two systems were defined independently, so round numbers in one are almost never round in the other. The inch was fixed at exactly 2.54 cm by international agreement in 1959; before that, different countries used slightly different inches.
No. Both use the metric system officially. The difference is conversational: in the UK people usually speak in feet and inches even though forms and medical records use centimetres.
There's no single answer, because average height varies widely between countries and between populations within them — by more than 15 cm across the world. 164 cm is close to the average for adult women in much of Europe and above it in parts of Asia. Height is largely determined by genetics and childhood nutrition, and it isn't an indicator of health on its own.
5 ft 6 in. Half of twelve inches is six, not five. Decimal feet are a common source of error — it's safer to avoid writing heights that way.
Yes, slightly. Spinal discs compress under load, so most people measure up to about a centimetre shorter in the evening than first thing in the morning. If you need a consistent figure, measure at the same time of day.