Feet to Centimeters

Visa applications, international driving permits, medical records outside the US and many online shops ask for height in centimeters only. If you know yourself as 5 ft 4 in, the quick route is to turn the whole height into inches first, 64 in, and multiply by 2.54 for 162.56 cm. The two-step route gives the same result: 5 × 30.48 = 152.4 cm, plus 4 × 2.54 = 10.16 cm.

Round only at the end. Most forms want whole centimeters, so 162.56 becomes 163 cm. Rounding the feet and inches separately can push the result a centimeter off, which matters little on a passport but can matter on a clinical growth chart.

Height limits at theme parks show how close the two systems come without matching. US parks commonly use 48 in, or 4 ft, which is 121.92 cm, while European parks often post 120 cm. A child who just clears one bar may miss the other by two centimeters.

Building materials are similar. North American plywood is 4 × 8 ft, which is 121.92 × 243.84 cm, while metric sheets are usually 122 × 244 cm or 125 × 250 cm. The 4 × 8 sheet is close enough to the first that plans often treat them as the same, but not the second. The foot in all of these is the international foot set in 1959; the US survey foot, very slightly longer, was retired at the end of 2022.

People often type a height like 5 ft 10 in as 5.10 into a decimal field. A calculator reads that as 5.1 ft, which is 155.4 cm, more than 22 cm short. Enter the inches separately, or convert 10 in to 0.833 ft first. For the opposite conversion, see centimeters to feet.