📏 Length & height
173 cm in Feet
173 centimetres is 5 feet 8.1 inches, or 5.676 feet. That uses the international foot of exactly 0.3048 m, so the figure is exact to the precision shown.
The short answer
173 cm = 5 ft 8.1 in
Also written as 5.676 ft, or 68.11 inches.
About 173 cm in feet
173 cm is 5.676 ft because one foot is 30.48 cm: 173 ÷ 30.48 = 5.676. Going through inches gives the same answer and is easier to read: 173 ÷ 2.54 = 68.11 inches, which is 5 whole feet (60 inches) plus 8.11 inches.
Height is the one place where feet and inches are still used in everyday British and American writing, which is why a figure like 173 cm gets written both ways. 173 cm is close to the 162 cm median adult woman in the same surveys, so it reads naturally as 5′8.1″ on a form that asks for feet and inches.
For a passport, a medical record or a clothing size, quote 173 cm or 5 ft 8.1 in and not both: mixing the two invites a rounding argument. Two decimal places on 5.676 ft already represent about 3 mm, which is finer than any height measurement taken with a wall scale.
Written as a decimal, 173 cm is 1.73 m; in feet it is 5.676 ft, and in inches 68.11. Metric drawings use metres, British property listings use feet, and medical charts use centimetres, so all three turn up for the same 173 cm measurement.
173 cm in feet is the usual way to type this, and the answer is 5.676 ft, or 5 ft 8.1 in to the nearest tenth of an inch. Every one of those forms describes the same length, so pick the one the form in front of you asks for.
How the calculation works
- 173 cm ÷ 30.48 = 5.676 ft
- 173 cm × 0.0328084 = 5.676 ft
- 173 cm ÷ 2.54 = 68.11 in, then ÷ 12 = 5 ft 8.1 in
Reference values
| Centimetres | Feet and inches | Decimal feet |
|---|---|---|
| 168 cm | 5 ft 6.1 in | 5.512 ft |
| 169 cm | 5 ft 6.5 in | 5.545 ft |
| 170 cm | 5 ft 6.9 in | 5.577 ft |
| 171 cm | 5 ft 7.3 in | 5.610 ft |
| 172 cm | 5 ft 7.7 in | 5.643 ft |
| 173 cm | 5 ft 8.1 in | 5.676 ft |
| 174 cm | 5 ft 8.5 in | 5.709 ft |
| 175 cm | 5 ft 8.9 in | 5.741 ft |
| 176 cm | 5 ft 9.3 in | 5.774 ft |
| 177 cm | 5 ft 9.7 in | 5.807 ft |
| 178 cm | 5 ft 10.1 in | 5.840 ft |