Height Converter
Human height often moves between two notation systems. Medical records, passports, and many international forms use centimeters or meters. Everyday descriptions in the United States and some sports contexts use feet plus inches. This height converter lets you start from either system and see the equivalent height as mixed feet and inches, centimeters, meters, total inches, and total feet.
The calculator is built for stature, so it keeps the language and examples focused on people. It is not a growth assessment, a BMI interpretation, or a medical screening tool. A converted number can help you fill out a form or compare profiles, but health interpretation depends on age, sex, body composition, measurement method, and professional context. For children and teenagers, growth charts are based on more than unit conversion.
Height is also a measurement with natural variation. Adults can measure slightly taller in the morning than later in the day, and posture or footwear can change an informal reading. Average heights reported by surveys are population summaries, not targets for an individual. Use this calculator to keep the units straight, then keep the original source value when official records or health discussions need traceability.
How to use the two modes
Choose Centimeters when your source height is metric. The calculator divides the centimeter value by 2.54 to find total inches, then separates total inches into feet and leftover inches. Choose Feet + inches when your source is imperial. The calculator multiplies feet by 12, adds the inches field, and then converts that total to centimeters and meters.
The feet-and-inches output uses two decimals for the inch remainder. That makes it more precise than casual whole-inch height wording. A person listed as 180 cm displays as 5 ft 10.87 in, even though many people would round that to 5 ft 11 in in conversation.
Formula
For a metric input:
For an imperial input:
Then the metric outputs are:
And the mixed imperial result is:
Conversion examples
With the default metric input of 180 cm:
Five full feet account for 60 inches. The remaining inch part is 10.8661417323, so the calculator displays 5 ft 10.87 in. The supporting rows show 180 cm, 1.8 m, 70.866 in, and 5.9055 ft.
With an imperial input of 5 ft 11 in:
The result is 5 ft 11 in, 180.34 cm, 1.8034 m, 71 in, and 5.9167 ft.
Height reference table
| Input height | Total inches | Feet and inches | Centimeters |
|---|---|---|---|
| 160 cm | 62.992 in | 5 ft 2.99 in | 160 cm |
| 170 cm | 66.929 in | 5 ft 6.93 in | 170 cm |
| 180 cm | 70.866 in | 5 ft 10.87 in | 180 cm |
| 5 ft 4 in | 64 in | 5 ft 4 in | 162.56 cm |
| 5 ft 10 in | 70 in | 5 ft 10 in | 177.8 cm |
| 6 ft 2 in | 74 in | 6 ft 2 in | 187.96 cm |
Human-height interpretation
Height varies by population, age, sex, and measurement conditions, so a converter should not be used to decide whether a value is normal or healthy. Adult-height averages are useful only as broad context, and children’s growth percentiles require official charts and repeated measurements over time. If a height value is being used for pediatric growth, medication dosing, athletic eligibility, or a health concern, treat the conversion as clerical support and rely on qualified guidance for interpretation.
For forms that ask for whole inches, round only at the final step. For forms that accept centimeters with one decimal place, preserve that decimal instead of converting to a rounded imperial height and back again. A one-inch change equals 2.54 cm, which is large enough to matter in growth records, clothing thresholds, and some eligibility rules. The safest workflow is source measurement first, converted display second.
For one-way centimeter-to-height wording, use the cm height conversion calculator. For a single total-inch height value, use the height in inches calculator. For non-body measurements, use the length converter so you can work with more units and less height-specific wording.
Pitfalls and rounding
Do not multiply feet directly by 2.54; feet must become inches first. Do not treat 5.10 ft as 5 ft 10 in, because 5.10 ft is only 5 ft 1.2 in. Do not assume a rounded height converts back exactly. If 180 cm is rounded to 5 ft 11 in and then converted back, the result is 180.34 cm, not 180 cm. Keep the original measurement when official records must be consistent.
Be careful with mixed inputs that already include rounding. A listed height of 6 ft 0 in may represent any measured value near 72 inches, while a laboratory or clinic entry in centimeters may be more exact. The calculator will faithfully convert the number you provide, but it cannot recover precision that was removed before entry.
Sources
- NIST, SI Units — official SI information and exact unit relationships.
- NIST, Special Publication 811 — guidance on SI unit usage and conversion presentation.
- CDC, Clinical Growth Charts — clinical growth-chart resources for children and adolescents.
- CDC, Adult BMI Calculator — example of height used as one input in a health calculation, not a diagnosis by itself.