Clothing Size Converter

UK, US, EU, French, Italian, Japanese and Australian clothing sizes, for women and men, converted through the one number that means anything: the bust or chest circumference in centimetres. Every national size on this page is that measurement halved, with a different constant taken off — which is the whole trick, and why the charts disagree at the ends.

Last updated 24 Sep 2026

Clothing sizes

Any system ⇄ bust or chest in cm

What are you sizing? (this changes everything below)Women’s and men’s sizes are built from different measurements with different arithmetic, and they share almost nothing but the habit of printing a number on a label.

Which system is your number in?

The size, or the measurement in cmRead it in whatever the box above says. Measuring beats every chart: tape round the fullest part of the bust or chest, level, snug but not pulled tight, breathing normally.

Not a circuit: one physical axis — half the bust or chest circumference in centimetres — with each country's size numbers printed along it at the position they describe. That is the whole content of a clothing size conversion table, drawn once. The vertical line is your own measurement; the rows change between womenswear and menswear because the two are built from different girths with different steps. Numbers are shown every four centimetres to keep the rows readable; the ticks are every two, which is one size.

92.0cmExample

a US women’s size 8

Every size is half a girth, minus a constant

womenswear: size = bust (cm) ÷ 2 − k, with k = 2 (IT), 4 (FR), 6 (EU/DE), 34 (UK, AU), 38 (US) · men’s jacket: UK = US = chest (in) · EU = IT = FR = chest (cm) ÷ 2

bust / chest: the circumference at the fullest part, level and snug, in centimetres
k: the constant each country subtracts; it is the whole difference between the systems
2 sizes: 4 cm of girth on every continental and British scale, and 5.08 cm on the men’s inch scale — which is why the two cannot stay aligned
号: the Japanese number, which is tabulated in JIS L 4005 rather than offset, and steps 3 cm of bust per two numbers up to 15号

Worked example

a US women's size 8
A US 8 means half the bust in centimetres is 8 + 38 = 46
So the bust it is cut for is 2 × 46 = 92.0 cm, which is 36.2 in
The UK number is 46 − 34 = 12, the EU number 46 − 6 = 40, the French 46 − 4 = 42 and the Italian 46 − 2 = 44
size.ly's chart gives a US 8 a bust range of 90 to 93 cm, so 92 sits in the middle of it, and its EU column says 40 — the same number the EN 13402 definition gives
The Japanese 号 for a 92 cm bust is 15, from the JIS L 4005 bust column, not from an offset

Women’s sizes, and the measurements behind them

The first seven columns are size.ly’s international dress chart. The last is half the middle of its own bust range less six, which is what EN 13402 says the EU number is. The two agree to within a quarter of a size up to US 14 and then part company, because the chart keeps adding two while the bust starts stepping by five centimetres.
US	UK	EU	FR	IT	JP 号	AU	Bust (cm)	Waist (cm)	Hip (cm)	EU from the definition
0	4	32	34	36	5	4	74–77	58–61	80–84	31.75
2	6	34	36	38	7	6	78–81	62–64	85–89	33.75
4	8	36	38	40	9	8	82–85	65–68	90–94	35.75
6	10	38	40	42	11	10	86–89	69–72	95–97	37.75
8	12	40	42	44	15	12	90–93	73–77	98–101	39.75
10	14	42	44	46	17	14	94–97	78–81	102–104	41.75
12	16	44	46	48	19	16	98–102	82–85	105–108	44.00
14	18	46	48	50	21	18	103–107	86–90	109–112	46.50
16	20	48	50	52	21	20	108–113	91–95	113–116	49.25
18	22	50	52	54	21	22	114–119	96–102	117–121	52.25
20	24	52	54	56	21	24	120–125	103–108	123–128	55.25
22	26	54	56	58	21	26	126–131	109–114	129–134	58.25

Two published charts, one step apart

Both charts are real, both are published, and their EU columns differ by a whole size at every row. The tie-breaker is the definition: size.ly’s EU column is the one that equals half the bust in centimetres minus six. Note that the two agree on Italy, and that their bust figures differ by up to 1.5 cm for the same nominal size, which is a third of a size on its own.
US	UK	EU (size.ly)	EU (blitzresults)	FR	IT	Bust from blitzresults (cm)	Bust from size.ly (cm)	Difference
0	4	32	30	32	36	81.3	75.5	5.8
2	6	34	32	34	38	83.8	79.5	4.3
4	8	36	34	36	40	86.4	83.5	2.9
6	10	38	36	38	42	88.9	87.5	1.4
8	12	40	38	40	44	91.4	91.5	-0.1
10	14	42	40	42	46	94.0	95.5	-1.5
12	16	44	42	44	48	97.8	100.0	-2.2
14	18	46	44	46	50	101.6	105.0	-3.4

Men’s jackets and suits

The UK and US numbers are the chest in inches and are the same number. The continental number is half the chest in centimetres. Because the two scales step by different amounts — 5.08 cm against 4 cm — the flat “add ten” rule the charts use is exact nowhere and close only around a 38 inch chest; by a 50 it is three sizes out.
UK	US	EU from the charts	EU from the definition	Gap	JP	Chest (cm)
30	30	40	38	2	32	76.2
32	32	42	40	2	34	81.3
34	34	44	44	0	36	86.4
36	36	46	46	0	38	91.4
38	38	48	48	0	40	96.5
40	40	50	50	0	42	101.6
42	42	52	54	-2	44	106.7
44	44	54	56	-2	46	111.8
46	46	56	58	-2	48	116.8
48	48	58	60	-2	50	121.9
50	50	60	64	-4	52	127.0

Men’s shirts and trousers

A men’s shirt is a neck measurement: inches in Britain and America, centimetres in Europe, so the conversion is just 2.54. The last column shows how far the published European column sits from the exact centimetre figure — never more than half a centimetre, because a shirt scale steps by half an inch and a centimetre is close enough.
Neck (in)	EU shirt	Neck (cm)	Chart minus cm
14.0	36	35.6	-0.4
14.5	37	36.8	-0.2
15.0	38	38.1	0.1
15.5	39	39.4	0.4
16.0	41	40.6	-0.4
16.5	42	41.9	-0.1
17.0	43	43.2	0.2
17.5	44	44.5	0.5
18.0	45	45.7	0.7

Trousers, and the drop

The European trouser number is not the waist in centimetres and not half of it either — it is the same continental jacket number, reached by assuming a six-inch drop between chest and waist. That is why EU trousers come out at the waist in inches plus sixteen: six inches of drop to get the chest, then ten to get the continental number. A cut with a bigger drop breaks it.
Waist (in), UK and US	EU trouser size	Jacket size that implies	Waist (cm)
30	46	36	76.2
32	48	38	81.3
34	50	40	86.4
36	52	42	91.4
38	54	44	96.5
40	56	46	101.6
42	58	48	106.7

Where the offsets come from

One measurement, five numbers. Nothing here is a standard; the German and EU line is the only one with a published definition behind it, and the others are conventions that happen to be stable.
System	The rule	Half a 88 cm bust	Gives
Italian	half the bust in cm − 2	44	IT 42
French	half the bust in cm − 4	44	FR 40
EU / German	half the bust in cm − 6	44	EU 38
UK and Australian	half the bust in cm − 34	44	UK 10, AU 10
US	half the bust in cm − 38	44	US 6

Vanity sizing, measured

Sears’ own catalogues, as recorded in Wikipedia’s vanity sizing article. The garment did not change; the label did, by fourteen sizes in seventy-four years. In 2010 Abram Sauer measured nominally 36-inch-waist trousers at several US retailers for Esquire and found 37 to 41 inches — a five-inch spread behind one printed number. No chart on this page, or anywhere, survives that.
Year	Size printed on a 32-inch-bust dress	Source
1937	14	The Sears catalogue’s own label for a 32-inch bust
1967	8	The same 32-inch bust, thirty years on
2011	0	The same 32-inch bust again — fourteen sizes lower

Every clothing size is one measurement with a constant taken off

There is one fact that makes clothing size conversion comprehensible, and almost nobody states it: a women’s size number is half the bust circumference in centimetres, with a constant subtracted, and the only thing that differs between countries is the constant. Italy subtracts two. France subtracts four. Germany and the EU subtract six — that is the published definition of the Konfektionsgröße, and EN 13402-3 is the European standard behind it. Britain and Australia subtract thirty-four. The United States subtracts thirty-eight. An 88 cm bust is therefore an Italian 42, a French 40, a German 38, a UK 10 and a US 6, and those five numbers describe one body.

Men’s tailoring is a unit change, not a conversion. A jacket size in Britain and America is the chest in inches. The same jacket in Germany, Italy or France is labelled with half the chest in centimetres. So a 40-inch chest is 101.6 cm and 101.6 ÷ 2 = 50.8, which is why a US 40 is sold as a 50. The charts all print “EU = US + 10” and it is a decent rule around a 38 to 40 inch chest — but an inch step is 5.08 cm of chest while a continental step is 4 cm, so the two scales diverge steadily. At a 50-inch chest the definition gives 64 and the chart still says 60. The table above shows the gap opening. Buy on the centimetre chest figure, which both systems agree about.

Japan is the genuine exception. Japanese womenswear is not an offset at all: JIS L 4005 tabulates the 号 numbers against bust and hip, stepping two numbers for every 3 cm of bust up to 15号 and 4 cm above it, where every European scale steps two per 4 cm throughout. So the gap between a Japanese number and a US one is not constant, and the charts that print “JP = US + 3” and the ones that print “JP = US + 5” are both wrong somewhere. This page reads the JIS bust column instead.

Two published charts, and one of them cannot be right. The size.ly chart used here grades four centimetres of bust per two US sizes; blitzresults grades one inch, 2.54 cm. Because their columns cross at a US 8, the two agree there and disagree everywhere else — by 5.8 cm at a US 0 and 3.4 cm the other way at a US 14, which is well over a size in both directions. The tie-breaker is not a vote: the EU number is half the bust in centimetres minus six, so two EU sizes is four centimetres of bust by construction, and only a four-centimetre grade can keep the European column honest. That is why this page uses the size.ly family and prints the other one beside it.

Now the part that matters more than any of it. Sizing charts are retailers’ conventions, not standards, and they have drifted. ASTM D5585 for women and D6240 for men exist, and the trade has largely ignored them; the federal standard they replaced, Commercial Standard CS 215-58, was made voluntary in 1970 and withdrawn in 1983. What filled the gap was vanity sizing. A Sears dress cut for a 32-inch bust was labelled a size 14 in 1937, a size 8 in 1967 and a size 0 in 2011: fourteen sizes of label drift with no change to the garment. Men’s labels are no better — Esquire measured trousers sold as a 36-inch waist and found between 37 and 41 inches, and a 2011 British study found more than half the garments it checked misdescribed, the worst by two inches.

So use this page the way it is built. Go from your measurement to the numbers, not from a number in one country to a number in another, and then check the specific maker’s own chart before buying, because it is the only chart that governs the garment in front of you. For shoes the same logic applies and the same page pattern is used: see the shoe size converter, and for a bra — where the band and the cup convert by different rules and the letters genuinely do not match between countries — the bra size converter does that separately. This page does the arithmetic. Where the answer carries a consequence — a dose, a structural load, a legal area, a medical measure — confirm it against the authority that governs it before relying on it.

Frequently asked questions

What is a UK 12 in EU sizes?

EU 40. A UK 12 means half the bust in centimetres is 12 + 34 = 46, and the EU number is 46 − 6 = 40. It is also a US 8, a French 42, an Italian 44 and an Australian 12, and it is cut for about a 92 cm bust.

Why do two charts give different EU sizes for the same US size?

Because one uses EU = US + 30 and the other EU = US + 32, and both are published. The tie-breaker is the definition: the EU number is half the bust in centimetres minus six, and only the +32 family agrees with that once you check it against the same chart’s own bust measurements. This page uses +32 and prints the other column so you can see the difference.

Is an Australian size the same as a UK size?

In womenswear, yes — the numbers are the same, so an AU 12 is a UK 12 and a US 8. Australian menswear follows the British and American inch scale for jackets.

What does EU 50 mean on a man’s jacket?

A 100 cm chest, because the continental men’s size is half the chest in centimetres. That is very close to a 40-inch chest (101.6 cm), which is why the charts pair a US 40 with an EU 50 — but the pairing is arithmetic coincidence at that one point, not a rule, and it goes wrong at the ends of the range.

Why does the same size fit differently in different shops?

Vanity sizing. The label is a marketing decision, not a measurement: a dress cut for a 32-inch bust was a Sears size 14 in 1937 and a size 0 in 2011, and trousers sold as a 36-inch waist have been measured at 37 to 41 inches. Two shops in the same country on the same street can differ by a full size.

Are there standards for clothing sizes?

For body measurements, yes and they are ignored: ASTM D5585 and D6240 in the United States, EN 13402 in Europe. Only the European one has visibly shaped the numbers on the labels, through the German Konfektionsgröße definition this page converts through. The US standard that had legal standing was withdrawn in 1983 and nothing replaced it.

How should I measure the bust or chest?

Round the fullest part, tape level all the way round and parallel to the floor, snug but not compressing, breathing normally, over the underwear you will wear. Then measure the waist at the narrowest point and the hip at the fullest. Three numbers beat any size letter, and any decent maker’s chart takes all three.

Related calculators

References

Wikipedia (German), Konfektionsgröße (read 26 September 2026), citing EN 13402-3: a man’s size is his chest circumference in centimetres divided by two, and a woman’s is her bust circumference in centimetres divided by two, less six. This is the only definition on the page that is a definition rather than a retailer’s chart, which is why everything else is converted through it.
EN 13402-3, Size designation of clothes — Body measurements and intervals, the European standard behind the continental size numbers. Copyrighted and cited by number only. What this page uses is the published definition of the German Konfektionsgröße that follows it: a man’s jacket size is half his chest circumference in centimetres, and a woman’s dress size is half her bust circumference in centimetres minus six.
size.ly, International Dress Size Conversion Chart (read 26 September 2026): thirteen rows of US, UK and EU sizes with bust, waist and hip ranges in centimetres and inches. Its UK column is the US column plus four and its EU column the US column plus thirty-two at every row, and its bust ranges agree with the EN 13402 definition of the EU number to within a quarter of a size up to US 14.
blitzresults.com, Women’s Sizing Chart: Measure & Convert (read 26 September 2026): the second published family, whose EU column is the US column plus THIRTY, one step below size.ly’s. Carried here so the page can state the disagreement; its French and Italian columns are its own EU column plus two and plus six, which puts its Italian numbers in the same place as size.ly’s.
size.ly, Men’s International Size Conversion Chart (read 26 September 2026): jackets US = UK = the chest in inches, Europe = US + 10, Japan = US + 2; shirts US = UK = the neck in inches and Europe = the neck in centimetres; trousers US = UK = the waist in inches and Europe = the waist + 16, which is the same continental scale reached through a six-inch drop between chest and waist.
JIS L 4005, Sizing systems for women’s garments (2023 revision). Copyrighted; cited by number. The 号 numbers and the bust and hip measurements used here were read from the size tables published by the Kaken Test Center, kaken.or.jp/learn/detail/63 (read 26 September 2026), which reproduces the standard’s body-type table with attribution.
japanconvert.com, Japanese Women’s Clothing Sizes (read 26 September 2026). Its Japanese column is the one that agrees with the JIS bust measurements — a JP 7 against a US 2, a JP 9 against a US 4 — where charts putting a JP 7 against a US 4 do not.
calculover.com, Clothing Size Converter (read 26 September 2026), which states the Australian equivalence used here — an AU 12 is a UK 12 and a US 8 — and which admits the European spread in its own words: EU sizes run 30 to 32 above the US number.
Wikipedia, Vanity sizing and U.S. standard clothing size (both read 26 September 2026), and the sources they cite: a Sears catalogue dress with a 32-inch bust was labelled size 14 in 1937, size 8 in 1967 and size 0 in 2011; Abram Sauer measured nominally 36-inch-waist trousers at several US retailers for Esquire in 2010 and found 37 to 41 inches; a 2011 UK study found misleading labels on more than half the garments it checked, the worst understating the waist by 1.5 to 2 inches.
ASTM D5585-11e1, Standard Practice for Specifying Body Measurements for Size Designation of Women’s Figure Types, and ASTM D6240/D6240M for men’s. ASTM International. Both are copyrighted and no table from either is reproduced here. They are cited because they are the only published body-measurement standards for US clothing and, as Wikipedia’s U.S. standard clothing size article records, the industry has largely not adopted them: the federal standard they replaced, Commercial Standard CS 215-58 of 1958, was made voluntary in 1970 and withdrawn in 1983.