Height gets stated three different ways depending on who is asking. A US doctor wants to hear feet and inches; a European passport form wants centimeters; a treadmill lane wants meters. Underneath all three is a single, exact conversion factor, and once you hold it, every height becomes readable in every unit.
The One Number That Explains Everything
Everything stems from 1 inch = 2.54 cm. From that single equality the rest falls out:
- 1 foot = 12 inches = 30.48 cm
- 1 meter = 100 cm = ~39.37 inches
- 1 cm ≈ 0.3937 inches
Memorize 2.54 and you can rebuild the entire ladder on a napkin.
Feet + Inches to CM
The most common ask in the US is “would him 5'7" in cm?” Do it step by step: separate the feet, the inches, multiply each, add.
5'7" → 5 ft + 7 in
Feet: 5 × 30.48 = 152.4
Inches: 7 × 2.54 = 17.78
Total: 170.18 cm (usually rounded to 170 cm)
CM Back to Feet + Inches
Going the other way, convert your centimeters to total inches first by dividing by 2.54, then split into a whole number of feet. For 170 cm: 170 ÷ 2.54 ≈ 66.93 inches. Divide by 12: 5 full feet (60 in), leaving 6.93 inches, so roughly 5'7".
A Handy Reference Table
| Feet + inches | Centimeters | Meters |
|---|---|---|
| 5'4" | 162.6 | 1.63 |
| 5'7" | 170.2 | 1.70 |
| 5'10" | 177.8 | 1.78 |
| 6'0" | 182.9 | 1.83 |
| 6'2" | 188.0 | 1.88 |
You should not have to hand-compute these at the doctor’s office. Type your height once into the HeightFast converter and every unit — feet, inches, centimeters, meters — appears at once.