Height Difference Calculator

Both heights are converted to centimetres first, whatever unit they were typed in. The calculator then subtracts the smaller from the larger, so the difference is always a positive number, and reports which of the two people is taller. Conversions use the exact definition of the inch, 2.54 cm, so a height entered as 5 ft 11 in becomes 180.34 cm and not a rounded approximation.

Because the maths runs on one canonical value, the result is the same whether you type both heights in centimetres, both in feet and inches, or one of each. Switching the chart unit changes how the difference is displayed, never the difference itself.

The same gap reads differently in each unit, which is why the result is shown in all of them. A 10 cm difference is 3.9 inches, a little under four. A 5 cm difference is about two inches. Under a foot, feet and inches collapse to inches only, so the calculator writes those differences as inches rather than as 0 ft.

Inches are shown to one decimal place. Rounding to whole inches would make a 2 cm gap look like either nothing or a full inch, and small differences are exactly the ones people ask about.

The percentage divides the difference by the shorter height. If one person is 180 cm and the other 165 cm, the difference of 15 cm is 9.1% of 165 cm, so the taller person is about 9% taller. The ratio says the same thing another way: the taller height is 1.091 times the shorter one.

Dividing by the taller height instead would give a smaller figure that describes how much shorter the other person is. Both are correct answers to different questions; the calculator uses the shorter height because "how much taller" is what people usually mean.

The table converts round centimetre differences into inches, feet and inches, and the percentage they represent against a 170 cm (5'7") person.

Numbers describe a gap; a drawing shows it. The two figures on this page come from the same comparison engine as the height comparison board: both stand on one ground line and share one linear scale, so the gap between the tops of their heads is the difference on the ruler beside them. The silhouettes show height only and say nothing about anyone's real build.

In person, a difference can look larger or smaller than it is. Posture, footwear, hair and where each person stands all change the impression, and eye level sits about a tenth of a person's height below the top of the head. Open the result on the full board to add a third person, an average adult from a cited source, or an object for scale, and to download or share the chart.