Waist-to-Height & Waist-to-Hip Ratio Calculator
Divide your waist by your height and check it against the 0.5 boundary, and your waist by your hips against the WHO cut-offs, in centimetres or inches.
How to Use
- Choose male or female. The waist-to-hip and waist-size cut-offs differ by sex; the 0.5 waist-to-height boundary does not.
- Enter your height in centimetres, metres, inches or feet and inches (5'7" or 5 7).
- Measure your waist midway between the bottom of your ribs and the top of your hips, just above the belly button, after breathing out normally, and enter it in centimetres or inches.
- Optionally measure your hips at the widest part of the buttocks and enter it to get the waist-to-hip ratio.
- Read the ratio on the gauge and the table below it, which lists each measure, its boundary and its source. Show Work has every division.
Worked Example
A man 178 cm tall with an 86 cm waist and 98 cm hips. Waist-to-height: 86 ÷ 178 = 0.483, in the NICE healthy band (0.4–0.49); half his height is 89 cm, so his waist is 3.0 cm under it. Waist-to-hip: 86 ÷ 98 = 0.878, below the WHO cut-off of 0.90 for men.
A woman 5 ft 5 in tall with a 34 in waist. 5 ft 5 in is 65 in, so 34 ÷ 65 = 0.523: increased central adiposity by the NICE bands, 1.5 in over half her height. Her waist is 86.4 cm, above the WHO increased-risk line of 80 cm but under 88 cm, and not above the NHLBI line of 35 in. Different measures draw the line in different places, which is why the table lists each with its source.
The common mistake: mixing units. Dividing her 34 in waist by her height in centimetres, 165.1 cm, gives 0.206, which looks far below every boundary. Both numbers must be in the same unit: 34 in ÷ 65 in, or 86.36 cm ÷ 165.1 cm, both give 0.523.
Show Work
Formulas
Half Your Height: Where the 0.5 Came From
Doctors have noticed for a long time that where fat sits matters as much as how much there is. The French physician Jean Vague described “android” (upper-body) and “gynoid” (lower-body) fat patterns in the 1940s and 1950s, and the waist-to-hip ratio became the common way to put a number on the difference. In December 2008 a WHO expert consultation in Geneva reviewed the evidence and set out the waist and waist-to-hip cut-offs used on this page.
Dividing the waist by the height came in the mid-1990s. In 1996 Margaret Ashwell, S. Lejeune and Klim McPherson argued in the BMJ that waist-to-height ratio may be a better indicator of the need for weight management, with 0.5 as the boundary for increased risk. Ashwell and S. D. Hsieh later turned it into one public-health message: keep your waist circumference to less than half your height. A 2012 systematic review and meta-analysis by Ashwell, Gunn and Gibson in Obesity Reviews found waist-to-height ratio a better screening tool for adult cardiometabolic risk than waist circumference or BMI.
In 2022 the UK’s National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) adopted it in its obesity guideline, with bands of 0.4–0.49, 0.5–0.59 and 0.6 or more, and advised telling people “to keep their waist to less than half their height”.
About This Tool
This calculator divides your waist by your height and, if you add it, by your hip measurement, and reads each result against a published boundary with its source: the NICE 2022 bands for waist-to-height, the WHO 2008 expert consultation for waist-to-hip and waist size, and the NHLBI line for waist size in inches. Heights and girths can be in centimetres or inches, and feet-and-inches heights can be typed as 5'10". NICE uses its waist-to-height bands for adults with a BMI under 35, including people with a lot of muscle; these are screening measures, not a diagnosis.
Everything runs in your browser; nothing you enter is sent anywhere. For general information only — not medical advice. Talk to a doctor or other qualified professional about your own health.
Related tools: Body Roundness Index Calculator, BMI Calculator, and Body Fat Calculator.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is a healthy waist-to-height ratio?
NICE (2022) classes 0.4 to 0.49 as healthy central adiposity, 0.5 to 0.59 as increased and 0.6 or more as high, for adults with a BMI under 35. In plain words: keep your waist to less than half your height. At 178 cm that means a waist under 89 cm (35.0 in).
How should I measure my waist?
NICE advises finding the bottom of the ribs and the top of the hips, wrapping the tape midway between them (just above the belly button) and breathing out naturally before reading it. Use the same units for waist and height: 5 ft 7 in is 67 inches.
What waist-to-hip ratio is too high?
The WHO 2008 expert consultation gives 0.90 or more for men and 0.85 or more for women as substantially increased risk of metabolic complications. A woman with a 98 cm waist and 104 cm hips has 98 ÷ 104 = 0.942, above the 0.85 cut-off.
Why divide by height instead of using the waist alone?
A fixed waist cut-off ignores height. A 40 in waist is a ratio of 0.571 for a man of 5 ft 10 in but 0.513 for a man of 6 ft 6 in. A 2012 meta-analysis by Ashwell, Gunn and Gibson found waist-to-height ratio a better screening tool for cardiometabolic risk than waist circumference or BMI.
Does the 0.5 boundary apply to children?
NICE uses the same message for children and young people aged 5 and over: keep the waist to less than half the height. A child 140 cm tall would aim for a waist under 70 cm. The waist-size and waist-to-hip cut-offs on this page are for adults only.
How do I use the Waist-to-Height & Waist-to-Hip Ratio Calculator?
Just type your numbers. The answer shows up right away — there is no button to press. Change anything and it updates by itself.
Do I need to install or sign up for anything?
Not at all — it runs in the browser with nothing to install and no account. After it loads once, it even works without an internet connection.
Is my information private?
Yes. Everything happens in your browser. Nothing you type is sent to a server or saved anywhere.
Common Use Cases
A tape-measure check at home
A 178 cm adult with an 86 cm waist has a ratio of 0.483, 3.0 cm under the 89 cm that would make it 0.5.
Tracking change
A 5 ft 10 in man whose waist drops from 40 in to 37 in moves from 0.571 to 0.529, a change BMI alone might not show.
Apple or pear shape
A 104 cm waist over 102 cm hips gives a waist-to-hip ratio of 1.020, above the WHO cut-off of 0.90 for men.
Measures that disagree
A 5 ft 5 in woman with a 34 in waist is 0.523 by waist-to-height but not above the NHLBI 35 in waist line; the table shows both side by side.
Inches or centimetres
Enter height in feet and inches and waist in inches, or everything in centimetres; the ratio is the same either way.
Last updated: