How to measure your height

A wall, a hardback book and a tape measure get you within half a centimetre.

Step by step

1. Take off shoes, and flatten or remove anything in your hair.
2. Stand on a hard floor (not carpet) with your back to a flat wall, feet together.
3. Touch the wall with your heels, buttocks, shoulders and the back of your head. Look straight ahead so your chin is level.
4. Have someone lower a hardback book flat onto the top of your head, square to the wall, and mark the wall under it with a pencil.
5. Measure from the floor to the mark. Do it twice more and take the average.

Common mistakes

• Measuring in the evening. You are about 1 cm shorter at night than in the morning, because the discs in your spine compress through the day. Measure at the same time each time.
• Tilting the book. A book angled up adds height. Keep it flat against the wall.
• Soft floors. Carpet and rugs let your heels sink a few millimetres.
• Rounding up. Write down what the tape says. In the height comparison chart you can enter 176.5 cm or 5′9.5″ exactly.

Converting cm to feet and inches

Divide centimetres by 2.54 to get inches, then by 12 for feet. 175 cm ÷ 2.54 = 68.9 in = 5′ 9″. The chart accepts any of these formats and converts for you.