Height conversion is one exact definition worked two ways, and most of the confusion around it is rounding, not arithmetic. This guide states the definitions, works the conversions step by step in both directions, prints the chart in 5 cm steps with the reverse table beside it, and answers the rounding question — why 170 cm is 5 ft 6.93 in, not 5 ft 7 in — in full.

The two definitions everything else follows from

Height conversion has no approximations in it, because the units are defined against each other exactly. Since 1959, the international inch has been defined as exactly 2.54 centimetres — not approximately, not on average, exactly. A foot is 12 inches, so a foot is exactly 30.48 centimetres. A metre is 100 centimetres. Every conversion on this page, in the Height Calculator, and in the tables below is one of two operations built from those definitions: divide centimetres by 2.54 to get inches, or multiply inches by 2.54 to get centimetres. If two converters ever disagree, one of them is rounding differently or using a rounded factor, and this guide shows you how to tell which, with the arithmetic worked in full so you never have to take a converter’s word for it.

That exactness is worth pausing on, because it is rarer than it looks. Most everyday conversions — miles to kilometres, pounds to kilograms — rest on definitions that are exact too, but people usually meet them through rounded factors like 1.6 or 2.2, and the rounding quietly accumulates. Height conversion tempts the same shortcut: 1 inch is “about 2.5 cm” is true to within 1.6%, and for a rough guess that is fine, but over a whole height the error grows to more than an inch, as the mistakes section shows. The exact factor costs nothing extra to use — 2.54 is a short number — so there is no reason to accept the shortcut’s error, and every table in this guide is computed from 2.54 exactly, cell by cell.

Converting step by step: centimetres to feet and inches

To convert a centimetre height to feet and inches, divide by 2.54 to get total inches, then split the total by 12: the whole number is feet, and the remainder is inches. Take 175 cm, the average height for US men in the CDC survey quoted on the Height Calculator page. Dividing gives 175 ÷ 2.54 = 68.90 inches. Splitting by 12 gives 5 feet with 8.90 inches left over, so 175 cm is 5 ft 8.90 in — about 5 ft 9 in when rounded to the nearest inch. The remainder is the part people most often get wrong: it is inches left over after whole feet, not a decimal fraction of a foot. 5.74 feet is not 5 ft 7.4 in; it is 5 feet plus 0.74 of a foot, which is 8.90 inches, the same answer by the other route. Keep the two forms apart — decimal feet and feet-and-inches — and the conversion stops producing nonsense.

The reverse direction is the mirror image. To convert feet and inches to centimetres, first turn the height into total inches — feet times 12, plus the inches — then multiply by 2.54. Take 5 ft 7 in: 5 × 12 + 7 = 67 inches, and 67 × 2.54 = 170.2 cm. Take 6 ft 1 in: 73 inches × 2.54 = 185.4 cm. Both directions are one multiplication or division plus, in one direction, a split by 12, and the Height Calculator performs them instantly for any value, including the heights between the rows of the printed tables below. The tables exist for the common values you need at a glance; the calculator exists for every other value, to the same exactness.

The chart: every 5 centimetres from 140 to 205

Find your centimetre figure in the first column and read across for total inches, feet and inches to two decimals, and metres. The 5 cm steps cover the range of most adult heights; the companion chart article on this site prints every single centimetre from 140 to 210, and the calculator above fills any gap between rows here. Two rows repay a second look. 170 cm is 5 ft 6.93 in — not 5 ft 7 in, a distinction the rounding section takes up in full. And 183 cm is 6 ft 0.05 in, just over the 6-foot line: a height that reads as “six foot” in conversation is often anywhere from 182 to 184 cm once measured, because conversation rounds to the nearest inch and the nearest inch is a generous unit.

Feet and inches to centimetres: the reverse table

Read the other way, the same definitions give the reverse table. The half-foot steps below are the heights people actually quote about themselves, and the centimetre column shows what each one really measures. Note how the gaps work: each inch is worth 2.54 cm, so neighbouring inch values are always 2.54 cm apart, while the foot boundaries — 5 ft 0 in to 6 ft 0 in — are 30.48 cm apart. If a height you are converting falls between two rows, add 2.54 cm per extra inch: 5 ft 8 in, for example, is two inches above 5 ft 6 in, so it is 167.6 cm plus 5.08 cm, which is 172.7 cm.

Rounding: why 170 cm is 5 ft 6.93 in, not 5 ft 7 in

Most height-conversion arguments are rounding arguments, and they dissolve once the rounding is stated. 170 cm divided by 2.54 is 66.929 inches, which is 5 feet and 6.93 inches. Rounded to the nearest whole inch, that is 67 inches, which is 5 ft 7 in — so “170 cm is 5 foot 7” is true as a rounded statement and false as an exact one, and both claims can be found on the internet because their authors are rounding to different places without saying so. The exact statement is 5 ft 6.93 in; the nearest-inch statement is 5 ft 7 in; the nearest-centimetre statement for 5 ft 7 in is 170.2 cm, not 170 cm. None of these is wrong. What is wrong is mixing them: converting 170 cm to 5 ft 7 in, then converting 5 ft 7 in back and expecting exactly 170 cm, and concluding that one of the converters is broken. The 0.2 cm gap is the rounding, twice over, and it is supposed to be there.

The practical rule follows from that. Keep two decimals in the inches remainder while you are working — 6.93 in, 8.90 in — and round only at the end, for the sentence you are writing. Round a height to the nearest inch for conversation, to the nearest centimetre for a form that asks for centimetres, and not at all for a medical record, where the exact figure is the point. And when two sources disagree by an inch, check the rounding first: a source that rounds each step, converting centimetres to inches, rounding, then converting back, can drift by a full inch from a source that rounds once at the end. The drift is not a disagreement about height. It is a disagreement about when to round, and the once-at-the-end source is the one to trust.

Worked examples: records, IDs, and sport

Heights arrive in the wrong unit at inconvenient moments, so here are the conversions people actually perform, worked end to end. A European ID card reads 152 cm: 152 ÷ 2.54 = 59.84 inches, which is 4 feet with 11.84 inches left over, so 4 ft 11.84 in — just under 5 feet, which is why 152 cm so often gets misremembered as 5 ft 0 in. A US driving licence reads 6 ft 1 in: 73 inches × 2.54 = 185.4 cm. A basketball roster lists 6 ft 6 in: 78 inches × 2.54 = 198.1 cm. A medical record reads 183 cm: 183 ÷ 2.54 = 72.05 inches, which is 6 ft 0.05 in — over the 6-foot line by five hundredths of an inch, a margin no tape measure could honestly claim, which is a good reminder that the last decimal in a conversion is arithmetic, not measurement.

One more worked example, because it is the mistake this guide most wants to prevent. Converting with the shortcut factor, 1 inch ≈ 2.5 cm, turns 175 cm into 70 inches, which is 5 ft 10 in — a full 1.10 inches above the true 5 ft 8.90 in, an error of 2.8 cm. The shortcut is off by 1.6% on every inch, and a height contains about 69 of them, so the errors stack instead of cancelling. Anyone whose converted height came out suspiciously tall — a whole inch above what they expected — should redo it with 2.54 before doubting the tape measure. The tape measure was probably right. The factor was the problem.

Measuring, and the mistakes that are not conversions at all

Finally, the conversion is only as good as the number fed into it, and height measurement has its own small print. Height is measured barefoot, standing straight against a wall or stadiometer, because shoes add anything from 1 to 4 cm depending on the sole, and a slouch costs more than any rounding choice in this guide. Height also changes during the day: spinal discs compress under gravity, so most people measure tallest in the morning and a centimetre or two shorter by evening, which is why a height taken at 8 a.m. and a height taken at 8 p.m. can genuinely differ without either being wrong. None of that is the converter’s business, but all of it affects which number you convert, and converting a morning height in shoes will produce a confident, exact, and wrong answer in the other unit.

The checklist, then, is short. Measure barefoot, against a wall, standing tall, and note the time of day if you plan to compare measurements. Convert with 2.54, exactly, in one direction only, rounding once at the end. Keep decimal feet and feet-and-inches apart. And when a converted height surprises you, check the rounding and the factor before you check the measurement: in this guide’s experience, the arithmetic is guilty far more often than the tape measure. The Height Calculator at the top of this site does all of this live, with the full chart and the ruler visual alongside, for any height you type.

Frequently asked questions

How do I convert cm to feet and inches?

Divide the centimetres by 2.54 to get total inches, then divide by 12: the whole number is feet and the remainder is inches. For example, 175 cm divided by 2.54 is 68.90 inches, which is 5 ft 8.90 in. The remainder is inches left over after whole feet, not a decimal fraction of a foot.

What is 5 foot 7 in cm?

5 ft 7 in is 67 inches, and 67 times 2.54 is 170.2 cm. Note that 170 cm itself converts to 5 ft 6.93 in, so 5 ft 7 in and 170 cm are nearest-inch and nearest-centimetre roundings of each other, not exact equivalents — the exact figure for 5 ft 7 in is 170.2 cm.

What is 170 cm in feet and inches?

170 cm is 5 ft 6.93 in exactly, which rounds to 5 ft 7 in to the nearest inch. The division is 170 divided by 2.54, which is 66.93 inches, and 66.93 inches split by 12 is 5 feet with 6.93 inches left over.

Why do two height converters give different answers?

Almost always rounding: one rounds to the nearest inch while the other keeps two decimals, or one rounds at every step while the other rounds once at the end. A difference of an inch or less between converters is usually rounding, not error. A difference larger than that usually means one converter used a rounded factor like 2.5 cm per inch instead of the exact 2.54.

How do I convert feet and inches to cm?

Turn the height into total inches first — feet times 12, plus the inches — then multiply by 2.54. For 6 ft 1 in, that is 73 inches times 2.54, which is 185.4 cm. For 5 ft 0 in, it is 60 inches times 2.54, which is 152.4 cm.

Is 1 inch exactly 2.54 cm?

Yes. The international inch has been defined as exactly 2.54 centimetres since 1959, and a foot is exactly 30.48 cm. Height conversion therefore has no approximations in it: divide centimetres by 2.54 for inches, or multiply inches by 2.54 for centimetres, and any disagreement between converters is a rounding choice, not a definitional one.