Waist to Hip Ratio Calculator

A waist to hip ratio describes where you carry fat, not how much of it you carry. Two people with the same weight and BMI can sit on opposite sides of the cut-off, because one stores more around the abdomen and the other more on the hips and thighs. That is the reason this measure keeps turning up in heart research, and the reason a calculator is worth more here than mental arithmetic: the useful answer is the distance to the line, in inches or centimeters you can track.

This page is the calculator. For the full step-by-step measuring routine, the attractiveness research and a training plan for bringing the ratio down, read our waist to hip ratio guide.

How the waist to hip ratio calculator works

Every number on the result card comes from a published source, and the line under the result names it.

• The ratio. Waist circumference divided by hip circumference, in the same unit. Because the units cancel, the ratio is identical in inches and centimeters.
• The cut-off. 0.85 for women and 0.90 for men, the values restated in Table A1 of the WHO expert consultation on waist circumference and waist-hip ratio (held in December 2008, published 2011). At or above them, the report rates the risk of metabolic complications as substantially increased.
• Waist at the cut-off. Your hip measurement multiplied by your cut-off. It is the waist at which your current hips would put you on the line, and the gap between it and your waist is the most practical number on the card.
• Waist alone. The same WHO table lists waist lines: over 94 cm (37.0 in) for men and 80 cm (31.5 in) for women for increased risk, and over 102 cm (40.2 in) and 88 cm (34.6 in) for substantially increased risk. The report notes these came from a Dutch sample and were offered as an example, not as a formal WHO recommendation.
• Asian adults. Switch the cut-offs to the lower example values the report cites for Asian populations: a ratio of 0.80 for women and 0.90 for men, and a waist of 80 cm for women and 85 cm for men.
• Two extra ratios. The hip to waist ratio is the same measurement inverted. Add your height and the card also shows your waist to height ratio, a different screen with its own evidence, covered in full on our waist to height ratio calculator.

Waist to hip ratio chart: the waist that reaches the cut-off

The cut-off is a ratio, but you measure with a tape. This chart converts it: find your hip measurement and read across to the waist at which your ratio would reach the line. A waist below that number keeps you under the cut-off.

Read the chart in both directions. A woman with 44 inch hips stays under the cut-off up to a waist of about 37.4 inches, which is already past the WHO waist-alone line of 88 cm (34.6 in). Wide hips can keep the ratio low while the waist itself is large, which is why the calculator reports both. A man with narrow 36 inch hips reaches 0.90 at a 32.4 inch waist, so a slim waist does not guarantee a low ratio either.

Why men and women have different cut-offs

On average, men store more fat inside the abdomen and women store more under the skin of the hips and thighs, so men have higher ratios at the same body fat. The WHO lines reflect that: 0.90 for men, 0.85 for women. The lower female line does not mean the measure matters less for women. In Peters, Bots and Woodward (2018), which followed 265,988 women and 213,622 men in UK Biobank for 7 years, each standard deviation of waist to hip ratio carried a hazard ratio for heart attack of 1.49 in women and 1.36 in men. The excess risk was 15 percent larger in women, and the ratio beat BMI in both sexes, most clearly in women.

A woman's ratio also tends to change in midlife. Fat shifts toward the abdomen across the menopause transition even when weight holds steady, which our review of menopause belly research covers in detail. A ratio that creeps up over a few years is a signal in its own right, even before it crosses 0.85.

Waist to hip ratio and heart disease: the evidence behind the cut-offs

The cut-offs are simple. The research behind them is broad, and three kinds of study point the same way.

A dose-response across 15 prospective studies

De Koning and colleagues (2007) pooled 15 prospective studies with 258,114 participants and 4,355 cardiovascular events in the European Heart Journal. Each 0.01 increase in the ratio raised the relative risk of a cardiovascular event by 5 percent (95% CI 4 to 7), and each 1 cm of waist by 2 percent, with consistent results in men and women. Comparing the highest and lowest groups, the risk was 1.95 times higher for the ratio and 1.63 times for waist circumference. In plain terms, moving from 0.80 to 0.85 is not a trivial change, even though both sit under the men's line.

Genetic evidence that abdominal fat itself matters

Observational studies cannot fully separate the ratio from the habits that go with it. Emdin and colleagues (2017) used a Mendelian randomization design in JAMA: 48 gene variants that raise the ratio independent of BMI, tested in data sets with up to 322,154 people plus 111,986 UK Biobank participants. A genetically higher ratio, by one standard deviation, went with 46 percent higher odds of coronary heart disease and 77 percent higher odds of type 2 diabetes, along with higher triglycerides, 2-hour glucose and systolic blood pressure. That supports a causal role for abdominal fat, not just a marker.

Death from any cause

The largest pooled analysis to date, Jayedi et al. (2020) in The BMJ, covered 72 cohorts and 2.5 million people. Each 0.1 rise in the ratio carried a 20 percent higher risk of death from any cause across 31 studies, and the risk climbed steadily from the lowest values up to a ratio of 1.1. Larger hips pointed the other way: each 10 cm of hip circumference went with 10 percent lower risk. The INTERHEART study of heart attacks in 52 countries reached a similar verdict on hips, and our guide walks through its numbers.

One honest limit: the WHO report itself concluded that waist measures predict best in young and middle-aged adults and less well in older people and those with a low BMI. It also favoured waist circumference over the ratio for everyday use, because a waist alone is easier to measure than a waist and hips. The ratio earns its place when you want to see where your fat sits, or when wide hips make a large waist look smaller than it is.

Worked examples

Seven people run through the calculator. The last column shows how the waist alone compares with the WHO waist lines for the same person.

The second and third rows show why the cut-off set matters. The woman with a 31 inch waist and 38 inch hips is under the standard 0.85 line but over the 0.80 example value for Asian women. The last row shows the reverse pattern for a man: his ratio is fine, but his waist alone is past the lower Asian waist line.

Lower cut-offs for Asian adults

The WHO lines were built mostly on people of European descent. The 2008 consultation found relatively consistent evidence that Asian populations need lower thresholds, because they tend to carry more abdominal fat at a given waist size or ratio. As examples from the studies it reviewed, the report cites a waist of 85 cm for men and 80 cm for women, and a ratio of 0.90 for men and 0.80 for women. It did not adopt them as formal cut-offs, which is why the calculator labels them as examples.

For other groups the evidence is thinner. Studies in the Middle East suggested lines similar to the European ones, a single Hispanic study suggested 0.90 to 0.91 for men and 0.84 to 0.86 for women, and no study the report reviewed set waist to hip ratio cut-offs for African populations. If your ancestry is not covered, use the standard table and treat a reading close to the line as a reason to look at your other risk factors.

Hip to waist ratio: the same number upside down

Some sites and some people divide the hips by the waist. That hip to waist ratio carries exactly the same information, but the direction flips: a higher number is the lower-risk side. The WHO lines become about 1.18 for women (1 divided by 0.85) and 1.11 for men (1 divided by 0.90). The calculator shows both, so you can compare with whichever number you were given, as long as you compare like with like.

Getting a reading you can compare

Two tape readings go into the ratio, so a small error in either one shows up in the result. Keep the tape level, snug but not pressing, and read it at the end of a normal breath out. Take each measurement twice: the WHO protocol averages the two when they agree within 1 cm and repeats both when they do not. Measure at the same landmark every time, because the waist level used by the US NHANES survey, at the top of the hip bone, gives a different number than the WHO midpoint. Our waist to hip ratio guide lays out the full routine with the common mistakes.

The waist at the cut-off cell is also the easiest way to see how much a tape error matters. With 40 inch hips, a quarter inch on the waist moves the ratio by about 0.006, so a reading within 0.01 of the line is worth repeating before you read anything into it.

If your ratio is over the line

A ratio at or above the cut-off is a screening result, not a diagnosis. The useful next step is a check of the risk factors the evidence links it to: blood pressure, fasting glucose or HbA1c, and blood lipids. De Koning and colleagues concluded that waist measures belong inside a full cardiovascular risk assessment, and that is where your doctor can use the number.

The ratio comes down when the waist does. Regular aerobic exercise is the most reliable way to cut the abdominal fat behind it, strength training protects muscle while you lose fat, and spot exercises for the stomach do not remove fat from that spot. Our guide to the best exercises to lose belly fat sets out the order things change. Expect the ratio to move slowly, because your hips usually shrink a little too. If you want an app that keeps you training through the slow weeks, our comparison of the best workout apps for weight loss ranks the options. FitCraft's dumbbell and bodyweight programs adapt as you progress, and your AI coach demonstrates the form for every exercise.

When to ignore this calculator

The calculator is built for healthy, non-pregnant adults. In these situations the ratio can mislead, and a clinician is the better guide.

• Pregnancy and the months after birth. The waist changes for reasons that have nothing to do with fat. Talk to your obstetric care team.
• Fluid in the abdomen or a large hernia. Ascites, a hernia or abdominal swelling inflate the waist. Ask your care team for another measure.
• Older adults and people with a low BMI. The WHO report found waist measures predict less well in these groups. Use the ratio as one input next to your other results.
• Hip surgery, amputation or a condition that changes hip size. Lipedema, hip replacement and muscle wasting all distort the denominator. Rely on waist circumference or waist to height ratio instead.
• Teenagers and children. The cut-offs are for adults. Talk to a pediatrician.
• Eating disorders or recent recovery. Body measurements can work against recovery. A clinician or registered dietitian who specializes in eating disorders is the right guide.

Related reading

References

1. World Health Organization. Waist circumference and waist-hip ratio: report of a WHO expert consultation, Geneva, 8-11 December 2008. Geneva: WHO; 2011. ISBN 9789241501491. WHO IRIS 10665/44583
2. de Koning L, Merchant AT, Pogue J, Anand SS. "Waist circumference and waist-to-hip ratio as predictors of cardiovascular events: meta-regression analysis of prospective studies." Eur Heart J. 2007;28(7):850-856. doi:10.1093/eurheartj/ehm026
3. Emdin CA, Khera AV, Natarajan P, et al. "Genetic association of waist-to-hip ratio with cardiometabolic traits, type 2 diabetes, and coronary heart disease." JAMA. 2017;317(6):626-634. doi:10.1001/jama.2016.21042, PMC5571980
4. Peters SAE, Bots SH, Woodward M. "Sex differences in the association between measures of general and central adiposity and the risk of myocardial infarction: results from the UK Biobank." J Am Heart Assoc. 2018;7(5):e008507. doi:10.1161/JAHA.117.008507, PMC5866342
5. Jayedi A, Soltani S, Zargar MS, Khan TA, Shab-Bidar S. "Central fatness and risk of all cause mortality: systematic review and dose-response meta-analysis of 72 prospective cohort studies." BMJ. 2020;370:m3324. doi:10.1136/bmj.m3324, PMC7509947
6. Yusuf S, Hawken S, Ounpuu S, et al. "Obesity and the risk of myocardial infarction in 27,000 participants from 52 countries: a case-control study." Lancet. 2005;366(9497):1640-1649. doi:10.1016/S0140-6736(05)67663-5

How this calculator differs from typical waist to hip ratio calculators

Most online waist to hip ratio calculators stop at the division and a single label. Some add low, moderate and high bands by age that are not traced to any named study, some quietly divide hips by waist, and few say where their cut-offs come from or that the WHO waist lines were offered only as an example.

This calculator uses the cut-offs restated in the WHO 2008 expert consultation and names that source under every result, with the cardiovascular evidence from de Koning et al. 2007, Peters et al. 2018 and Emdin et al. 2017. It converts the cut-off into the waist at which your own hips would reach it, checks your waist on its own against the WHO waist lines, and offers the report's lower example values for Asian adults. It shows the inverted hip to waist ratio so both conventions line up, and it checks every input against realistic adult ranges before a number appears.