163 cm = 5 ft 4.2 in

163 cm in feet and inches

The inch has been defined as exactly 25.4 mm since 1959, NIST explains, so a centimeter height converts by dividing by 2.54:

1. 163 ÷ 2.54 = 64.173 inches
2. 64.173 ÷ 12 = 5.348, so 5 feet
3. 64.173 − 60 = 4.17 inches
4. 163 cm = 5′ 4.17″, or 5′4″ rounded

Exactly 5′4″ is 64 inches, 162.56 cm, so 163 cm is 0.44 cm (about a sixth of an inch) taller than five-four. The next inch up, 5′5″, is 165.1 cm, 2.1 cm away. In decimal feet it is 5.35 ft.

The 5′4″ to cm page handles the reverse conversion.

163 cm: the typical young American woman

If there is one height that describes the median young woman in the United States, it is 163 cm. Several independent data sources agree within half a centimeter:

The last row is the one most often quoted. CDC FastStats summarizes it as 63.5 inches. It is lower because it averages every adult woman, including those in their 70s and 80s, whose median is under 158 cm. The NCD-RisC figure for the United States estimates the adult height of a single birth year, 1996, and the NHANES 20–29 median does essentially the same with a direct measurement. So "average American woman" can honestly mean 161 cm or 163 cm depending on which population you mean.

The British couple study used self-reported heights, and its authors note that people tend to overstate their height slightly. That may explain why its average is a little higher than the measured figures.

Where 163 cm falls for US women by age

NHANES, run by the National Center for Health Statistics, measures participants in person. The August 2021–August 2023 percentiles, published in June 2025, place 163 cm as follows:

Values are interpolated between published percentiles and are approximate.

The table shows a smooth gradient: 163 cm is exactly average for women in their 20s and 30s, slightly above average by middle age, and clearly above average for women over 70. That gradient reflects both generational change and height loss with age, and a one-time survey cannot separate the two.

Same height, different journeys: women at 163 cm worldwide

Women born in 1996 average close to 163 cm in a group of countries that reached that point by very different routes. The NCD-RisC estimates in the site's data show it clearly:

The United States arrived early and stopped. American women born in 1956 were already 163.6 cm on average, and those born forty years later were no taller. NCD-RisC describes the US as having the earliest plateau of any high-income country: a century ago it was among the tallest nations, and it has since been overtaken by much of Europe. Our World in Data likewise notes that women's heights in North America have stagnated.

Spain and Portugal caught up. Spanish women gained 12.3 cm across the century and Portuguese women 12.5 cm, with much of the increase among women born after 1956. Women in both countries born in 1896 were more than 7 cm shorter than American women of the same generation; by the 1996 cohort the gap had essentially closed.

South Korea made the largest jump anywhere. NCD-RisC identifies South Korean women as having gained more height than any other group in the world, 20.2 cm over the century. A 163 cm woman born in Korea in 1896 would have been more than 20 cm taller than average; today she would be less than a centimeter above it. Our World in Data adds that the gap between South Korean men and women narrowed from 18 cm to 13 cm over the same period.

Senegal peaked and slipped. Senegalese women born in 1956 averaged 163.3 cm, but the 1996 cohort averaged 162.5 cm, part of the wider pattern of stalled or reversed growth that NCD-RisC reports for several sub-Saharan African countries.

So the same 163 cm describes a woman who is exactly average in Canada, Spain or the United States, but whose grandmother's generation would have seen her very differently depending on the country.

163 cm and petite sizing

163 cm is the line that defines petite. Petite sizing is generally described as being for women 163 cm (5′4″) or shorter, and it adjusts more than length: the cut assumes shorter limbs, a shorter torso and narrower shoulders. The category is credited to designer Hannah Troy in the 1940s, who found that only a small share of women fit standard proportions and that most were "short in the waist."

Because petite is defined by height while the typical young American woman is 163 cm, roughly half of women in their 20s fall at or under the petite threshold. A woman at exactly 163 cm may find that petite and regular lengths both fit depending on her proportions, which is the point Troy originally made: height is only part of the picture.

Fashion runway norms show how far 163 cm is from a different industry's standard. The British Association of Model Agents has said female runway models should be between 173 cm (5′8″) and 180 cm (5′11″), and "petite" models, a separate commercial category, are described as being under about 168 cm.

A historical ceiling: the 5′4″ airline hostess

For decades, 163 cm was not a floor but a ceiling. A 1936 New York Times description of airline hostess requirements specified a height of 5′0″ to 5′4″, putting 163 cm right at the top of the acceptable range. By 1966 an Eastern Airlines advertisement had widened that to at least 5′2″ and no more than 5′9″. Today the range usually quoted is above about 152 cm and below about 185 cm, set by the need to reach overhead safety equipment rather than appearance.

Famous people at about 163 cm

All three are within a centimeter of 163 cm, a difference too small to see when people stand side by side. Heights for public figures come from published profiles and databases rather than measurements, so small differences between sources are normal; each person's page lists the sources used.

163 cm for men: an average in Southeast Asia

For men in the US, 163 cm is short: about the 6th percentile for men aged 20 and over in NHANES 2021–2023, rising to the 11th percentile at ages 70–79 and the 16th at 80 and over. The average US man is 175.1 cm, 12.1 cm taller.

Globally, it is an ordinary male height in several populous countries. NCD-RisC, which pooled 1,472 population studies with more than 18.6 million measured participants, estimates men born in 1996 at:

Our World in Data notes that the Philippines' gap between men and women doubled over the twentieth century, from 7 cm to 14 cm, as men's height rose while women's barely changed.

Teen growth through 163 cm

On the CDC's 2000 stature-for-age charts, the median boy reaches 163 cm at about 14 years. The median girl approaches it only at about 17.4 years, because her adult median at age 20 is 163.3 cm. Converting 163 cm to percentiles with the CDC's z-score method:

At 18 a 163 cm girl is at the median; a 163 cm boy is around the 4th percentile. The height percentile calculator gives exact values for any age.

Couples and comparisons at 163 cm

The 2013 PLOS ONE study by Stulp and colleagues found an average partner height difference of 14.11 cm among 12,502 British couples, with the man taller in 92.5 percent of them. For a 163 cm woman, adding the average gap gives a partner of about 177 cm, very close to the sample's average father (177.86 cm). In that sense, 163 cm plus a 178 cm partner is the statistically typical couple.

Some concrete gaps from 163 cm:

• vs the average US man (175.1 cm): 12.1 cm (4.8 inches)
• vs 5′10″ (177.8 cm): 14.8 cm; see 5′4″ vs 5′10″
• vs 6′0″ (182.9 cm): 19.9 cm; see 5′4″ vs 6′0″
• vs 160 cm: 3 cm; see 160 cm
• vs 165 cm: 2 cm; see 165 cm

Use the 3D height comparison tool to place a 163 cm figure next to anyone in the catalog.

Getting an honest 5′4″

At 163 cm, the difference between writing 5′4″ and 5′5″ is about 2 cm, and normal daily variation can account for a good part of that. One study summarized in Wikipedia's human height article found that children were on average 1.54 cm shorter in the late afternoon than right after getting out of bed. Measuring at a consistent time of day removes that source of error.

For a figure you can compare with NHANES or a doctor's chart:

1. Measure barefoot on a hard floor, heels together against a wall.
2. Keep the back of the head, shoulders and buttocks touching the wall, eyes looking straight ahead.
3. Slide a hardcover book down the wall until it rests flat on the crown, then mark under it.
4. Measure the mark with a steel tape to the nearest millimeter, and note the time of day.

Then convert the exact result with the height converter. Any reading from about 161.3 cm up to 163.8 cm rounds to 5′4″; from 163.9 cm the nearest inch becomes 5′5″.