Shoe sizes by country at a glance

This is the numbers page for shoe sizes across countries. For the conversion tool itself, use my shoe size conversion calculator. For the foot measurements underneath, see my foot size statistics, and for sales, returns and fit data see the footwear statistics hub.

Key findings

1. The 23 countries in my directory fall into six groups: five on UK sizes, two on US sizes, two on the Australian and New Zealand mix, eight on EU (Paris point) sizes, five on Mondopoint and Mexico on its own. It is a sample of named countries, not a full list.
2. ISO publishes both ends of this. ISO 9407:2019 defines Mondopoint, and ISO’s own record says it was confirmed in June 2026. ISO 19407:2023 gives conversion tables for seven systems based on foot length, and it calls them a guideline.
3. A “size” is not one distance. One full size covers 5 mm in Mondopoint, about 6.7 mm in EU sizes and about 8.5 mm in UK and US sizes, so two sizes is about 10, 13 or 17 mm depending on the system.
4. Foot length converts into each system with simple formulas. Mine reproduce the two worked examples in the source article exactly, and two other formula sources land within 0.25 of an EU size and 0.5 of a UK size. So I treat conversions as good to about half a size.
5. A 270 mm foot is about EU 42.5, UK 9 and US men’s 10. A 245 mm foot is about EU 39, UK 6, US men’s 7 and US women’s 8 to 8.5 (my calculations).
6. The US women’s size is 1 above the men’s size on the standard scale and 1.5 above by the rule retailers quote. Both are in use, and the difference is half a size.
7. No statistics office I checked publishes an average shoe size by country. The best single-country data I found is Japan’s: 937,718 people measured in 2020, with mean foot lengths of about 254.5 mm for men and 233 mm for women, which is roughly EU 40 and EU 37.
8. Across eight measured groups, men’s mean foot length converts to about EU 39 to 43 and women’s to about EU 36 to 39. The groups differ in who was measured and how, so I show the spread and do not rank countries.
9. The US Army survey’s median man’s foot (271 mm) is about 16.5 mm longer than Japan’s ZOZO mean (254.5 mm), about two UK or US sizes. In 1.2 million foot scans the gap between North America and Asia was 15 mm. Different groups, so these are indications.
10. Of three popular “average shoe size by country” pages I read, none tied its country figures to a named measurement survey, and one table lists Chinese women at UK 3.5 and US 3.5, which the scales do not allow.

What I noticed while putting this together

I expected to find a table of average shoe size by country that I could cite. I didn’t. Searching the phrase mostly returns the same handful of numbers repeated, and the sources the tables name are usually Wikipedia and a conversion chart. That is why this page is split in two.

The sizing side was easier than I expected. ISO has public records for both standards, and the formulas in the Wikipedia article reproduce its worked examples to the nearest size. I then checked them against two other formula sources, a footwear brand’s blog page and an independent PDF, and they agree to within a quarter of an EU size and about half a UK size at worst. That is where “good to about half a size” comes from.

The thing that surprised me most is how different the steps are. I had always thought of a size as one thing. It’s 5 mm in Mondopoint, 6.7 mm in EU sizes and 8.5 mm in UK and US sizes, so “go up two sizes” means a different length depending on where the shoe is from.

The averages side was harder. One popular table I read lists Chinese women as UK 3.5 and US 3.5. Those can’t both be right, because for the same foot a US women’s size runs 2 to 2.5 above the UK size. I only looked at that one row closely, but it told me how much weight to give the rest of that table.

The best country data I could find was Japan’s. ZOZO, the online fashion company, published a report on 937,718 people it measured with its ZOZOMAT. I read the original report in Japanese, and a news report gave the same national average. It is a 2020 company report on online shoppers, so I mark it tier C, but it is far bigger than anything else I found for a single country.

Everything else is thinner. Six other countries’ feet come to me through a table in one Iranian paper, and I could not open the original studies. I kept those rows and marked them tier D. I dropped three other rows from that table (Malaysian, Chinese and Indian samples from one study in a forensic science journal) because their men’s figures sit more than 20 mm below every other Asian men’s figure I have, and I couldn’t check why.

What we know about shoe sizes by country and what we don’t

Here’s where the public evidence stands as of October 2026. Official statistics bodies don’t publish average shoe size, so the figures rest on standards, research and company reports.

15 shoe size by country statistics you can cite

Each card has one number, one sentence of context and its source. “Copy text” opens a box with the sentence, the source and a link back here. Please cite the original source for any single statistic. Cards marked E are my own calculations, and the method is on the card or in the dataset.

How many shoe sizing systems are there?

I wanted one picture of how they relate, so I started with the step each system takes between one size and the next. The chart shows it.

<figure style="margin:0"><a href="https://urbanstylefootwear.com/shoe-size-by-country/"><img src="https://urbanstylefootwear.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/usf-length-of-one-shoe-size-by-system.png" alt="Bar chart of foot length covered by one full shoe size: 5 mm Mondopoint, 6.7 mm EU, 8.5 mm UK and US" width="800" style="max-width:100%;height:auto"></a><figcaption>Source: UrbanStyle Footwear, based on Wikipedia's summary of ISO 9407 and the national standards. <a href="https://urbanstylefootwear.com/shoe-size-by-country/">Shoe Size by Country 2026</a></figcaption></figure>

The three steps are 5 mm, about 6.7 mm and about 8.5 mm. That has a practical effect. Two sizes in the UK system is about 17 mm of foot, but two sizes in EU numbers is about 13 mm. When someone says “I’m between sizes”, the gap they are describing is not the same length everywhere.

The easiest way to hold this in your head is that every system is a ruler for the same foot. Mondopoint prints the reading directly. EU, UK and US sizes are the same foot read off three differently marked rulers, which is why they are all straight lines against foot length, as the conversion chart below shows. The UK and US rulers have the same step and different starting points. That is the whole reason a US men’s 10 is about a UK 9.

My read. If you only remember one thing, remember the step. It explains why EU sizes feel finer than UK ones and why “size up” means a different amount of room depending on where you shop.

Which countries use which shoe size system?

This is the part that is well documented, and I took it from Wikipedia’s summary of the standards. Filter the directory below by system. It is a sample of 23 countries Wikipedia names, not every country.

A few of these surprised me or are easy to get wrong.

• Australia and New Zealand. Men’s and children’s sizes follow the UK scale, so a men’s UK 8 is an Australian 8. The women’s scale is described as following US sizing, and women’s charts vary, so I don’t give a number for it. My US to Australian chart covers it in detail.
• India. India is on the UK-style scale. A new system called Bha, with eight sizes, was proposed, and in the April 2024 report I read it was still a proposal. See my Indian vs UK shoe size guide and the Indian vs US guide.
• Japan, China, Korea. The label is the foot length, so conversions are the easy ones: 27.0 in Japan is 270 in China and Korea. My US to Japan and China to US charts cover the US side.
• Mexico and Brazil. Mexico uses foot length in cm or a barleycorn variant, and Brazil uses the Paris point method with an offset. I did not tabulate either, because I couldn’t confirm the offsets from a second source. See my US to Mexico chart.
• Russia. Soviet-era Paris points, later Mondopoint under GOST standards. If a Russian label looks like a foot length, that is why.

How do shoe sizes compare across countries?

Here is the arithmetic I used. The formulas come from Wikipedia’s article, which cites the standards, and every number on this page that converts a foot length uses them.

• EU = 1.5 x foot length in cm + 2
• UK = 3 x foot length in inches – 23
• US men’s = UK + 1
• US women’s = UK + 2 on the standard scale, or men’s + 1.5 (UK + 2.5) by the retail rule
• Japan, China, Korea = the foot length (cm in Japan, mm in China and Korea)

<figure style="margin:0"><a href="https://urbanstylefootwear.com/shoe-size-by-country/"><img src="https://urbanstylefootwear.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/usf-foot-length-to-eu-uk-us-shoe-size.png" alt="Lines of EU, UK and US shoe sizes rising with foot length from 220 to 320 mm, with 245 and 270 mm marked" width="800" style="max-width:100%;height:auto"></a><figcaption>Source: UrbanStyle Footwear, based on standard conversion formulas (UrbanStyle calculation). <a href="https://urbanstylefootwear.com/shoe-size-by-country/">Shoe Size by Country 2026</a></figcaption></figure>

I tested them before trusting them. Wikipedia gives two worked examples, a 280 mm foot and a 230 mm foot, and my formulas reproduce both to the nearest whole size in all four systems. A footwear brand’s blog page gives EU as (foot length in cm + 1.5) x 1.5, and an independent PDF gives the UK and US scales with slightly different allowances. Across every 5 mm from 220 to 320 mm, the largest gap against the brand formula was 0.25 of an EU size, and against the PDF it was 0.48 of a UK size. That is why I call them good to about half a size.

The table does the sums for every 5 mm. I rounded to the nearest half size. Wikipedia notes its own sample conversions round up to the larger size, so if your foot falls between two sizes, the larger one is the safe choice.

My read. The table is a sanity check, not a size chart for any brand. Use it to see whether a size you’ve been quoted is in the right place, then trust the seller’s own chart. My men’s and women’s conversion charts go size by size, and the US vs UK vs EU guide explains the differences.

What is the average shoe size by country?

This is the part where I could do the least, and I’d rather say so than fill the table with guesses. Pick a dataset to see who was measured and where it falls short.

<figure style="margin:0"><a href="https://urbanstylefootwear.com/shoe-size-by-country/"><img src="https://urbanstylefootwear.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/usf-average-foot-in-shoe-sizes-by-country.png" alt="Dot plot of mean foot length as EU shoe size for men and women in Japan, Taiwan, Italy, Iran, US, Australia" width="800" style="max-width:100%;height:auto"></a><figcaption>Source: UrbanStyle Footwear, based on the ZOZO report (2020), a US Army survey table, Hajaghazadeh et al. (2018) and earlier studies listed in its Table 3. <a href="https://urbanstylefootwear.com/shoe-size-by-country/">Shoe Size by Country 2026</a></figcaption></figure>

The chart converts each group’s mean foot length into an EU size. Here are the same groups with UK and US sizes too, and the foot lengths behind them.

A few things about these rows before you quote them.

• Japan. ZOZO measured 937,718 customers aged 16 and over between February 27 and May 31, 2020. Men averaged 25.5 cm (left foot) and 25.4 cm (right), women 23.3 cm. I averaged left and right for men. A 1998 paper in the same table gives 247.9 and 227.4 mm, about 6 mm shorter. Different people, different methods and 22 years apart, so I don’t read it as a trend.
• The US. The Army median is 271 mm for men and 244 mm for women, from soldiers. In 1.2 million foot scans, the most common length class in North America was 270 mm and 245 mm. Both point to about a US men’s 10 and a US women’s 8 to 8.5. Nobody publishes an official US average, and my average men’s shoe size and average women’s shoe size pages cover the sales side.
• Iran. 290 men and 290 women, all university students in Urmia. Peer-reviewed, but one city and a young group.
• Taiwan, Italy, Hong Kong, Australia. All via the Iran paper’s comparison table. Hong Kong (26 and 24 people), Italy (130 and 128) and Australia (87 and 108) are small samples, and the Australian one was published in a forensic medicine journal.
• India. A reported survey scanned 101,880 people, but the reports I read give no foot lengths. I cannot give an Indian average.

Put the two ends side by side and the gap is real. The median man’s foot in the US Army survey is about 16.5 mm longer than the Japanese ZOZO mean, which is about two UK or US sizes. In the 1.2 million foot scans, the most common men’s length was 270 mm in North America and 255 mm in Asia, a 15 mm gap or about 1.8 sizes. A 2022 systematic review of 17 studies and 15,235 participants also concluded that foot shape differs between ethnic groups and between the sexes. None of that makes a rule for any one person.

My read. The spread across countries is smaller than the spread within any one of them. The middle 90% of men’s feet in the US Army survey spans about 43 mm, which is five UK sizes. That is why an average, by country or otherwise, should never pick your size. Your own measurement should. My foot size statistics page has the underlying numbers.

How do men’s and women’s shoe sizes relate?

This one tripped me up while checking numbers, because two sources I trust disagree. Wikipedia’s formulas put the standard women’s scale at 3 x foot in inches minus 21, which is one above the men’s 3 x foot minus 22. Road Runner Sports, a US running retailer, says women’s sizes run about 1.5 above men’s and gives the example that a women’s 8.5 is a men’s 7. An independent PDF I used as a cross-check also uses the 1.5 spread, so the retail convention is common in practice.

It is half a size either way, which is inside the half-size accuracy I claim for the whole table. The more useful point is that a men’s and a women’s shoe of the same size number are built on different lasts, so the number is only part of the story. My men’s to women’s conversion chart uses the 1.5 rule, and the unisex size chart covers shoes sold across both.

Why do “average shoe size by country” lists disagree?

I picked one row to test, because it was easy to check against the formulas. A popular table lists Chinese women at EU 36, UK 3.5 and US 3.5. Each number points to a foot length, and the three should agree.

EU and UK agree, so the US figure looks like a copy of the UK one. For a foot of about 225 mm, the EU and UK numbers also sit about 6 to 12 mm below the measured Asian women’s figures I have: 233 mm in Japan, 235 mm in the Asian foot scans and 235.8 mm in Taiwan. I don’t take that further, since the table gives no source or date.

Do brands and children’s sizes follow the same country rules?

Everything above is about the system. A brand can pick a last that runs a little long or short, and a half size of difference between two brands in the same country is common. I haven’t measured brands for this page, so I’m not putting numbers on it. My brand size charts convert US, UK and EU sizes, and most add foot length in cm: Nike, Adidas, New Balance, ASICS, HOKA and Brooks are the ones I’d start with.

Children’s sizes are a separate scale. The adult table on this page doesn’t apply to them. For children and babies, start with my kids shoe size conversion chart, the children’s shoe size chart by age and the baby shoe size conversion chart.

Width is the other thing a country system doesn’t capture. Among North American men with a 270 mm foot in a large scan study, the middle 90% spanned about 16 mm in width, so see my shoe width guide.

Who measures what?

The material on this page comes from five kinds of source, and each answers a different question. No statistics office appears, which is why the averages rest on research and company reports. Select a step to see what it covers and how I use it.

How good is the evidence behind shoe sizes by country?

• Tier E is large on purpose. Most of what I add is conversion arithmetic. It’s shown, but it’s mine, not a published measurement.
• Tier D carries the country averages. Most rows that put numbers on a country’s feet are second-hand, and I say so each time.
• Counts are not quality scores. A tier B row tells you a standard exists, not that every brand follows it.

What I’m watching next

I don’t forecast. These are the things that would change this page, and what I’ll do if they appear.

• A new ISO 19407 edition or a notified Indian Bha standard. I’ll update the directory and the conversion notes.
• A newer ZOZO or other large national measurement report. The 2020 figures are the oldest thing I lean on for Japan, so I’d replace them as soon as something newer appears.
• Published foot lengths from India’s CSIR-CLRI survey or from Size Korea. Either would let me add an average for a country that is empty today.
• A second source for the Brazil and Mexico offsets. Then I can tabulate them.
• Any national foot survey from Europe, Latin America or Africa that reports means by sex.
• Corrections. If you know a measured source I missed, email me.

Every change goes in the freshness log.

Where other shoe-size-by-country articles go wrong

I read three popular “average shoe size by country” pages and looked at the search results for the phrase. Some of what follows I saw, and the rest are traps that are easy to fall into. This is not a complete audit of anyone’s work.

• Problem 1Country tables with no survey, sample size or date behind them. The ones I read named Wikipedia or a conversion chart as sources, or listed studies with no links.
• Problem 2Numbers that contradict the system, such as UK 3.5 and US 3.5 for the same women in one row.
• Problem 3The same page giving two different figures for the same average, such as the US men’s average as 10 in a table and 10.5 in the text.
• Problem 4Five countries presented as “the world”, with men missing for some of them and women missing for others.
• Problem 5Shoe size treated as if it were foot length, with no mention that the step differs between systems.
• Problem 6A single men’s-to-women’s rule stated without saying the other convention exists.
• Problem 7No downloadable data, so nobody can check or reuse the numbers.

How should you buy shoes from another country?

This is practical advice, separate from the research. It reflects what the standards and studies show, plus my own opinions where I say so.

1. Measure both feet in millimetres and use the longer one. My foot measuring guide shows how, with versions for men and women.
2. Convert from the measurement, not from a size. Use the table above or the calculator. Converting a size to a size passes the error twice.
3. Check the seller’s own chart. Brands differ by up to about half a size around the standard conversions. If the chart gives foot length in cm or mm, match your measurement to that.
4. If you are between sizes, go up. Wikipedia notes the standard sample conversions round up, and a foot can squeeze into a bigger shoe more easily than a smaller one. That last part is my opinion.
5. For Japan, China and Korea, buy by foot length. A 270 mm foot is a 27.0 in Japan and a 270 in China and Korea. My US to Japan and China to US guides go through it.
6. For women’s sizes, check which rule the seller uses. The plus 1 and plus 1.5 conventions differ by half a size.
7. Know the return policy before you order across borders. Fit is the usual reason shoes come back. See my shoe return statistics and online shoe shopping statistics.

If you don’t want to work any of this out, my footwear buying guide covers the rest of the process.

Sources and evidence tiers

Evidence hierarchy

• APeer-reviewed research. The 1.2 million foot scan study, the Iranian measurement study and the 2022 systematic review on foot shape.
• BOfficial records and standards. The ISO records for ISO 9407:2019 and ISO 19407:2023. No statistics office publishes average shoe size, so there are no official statistics here.
• CCompany and retailer statements. The ZOZO report and the Road Runner Sports sizing rule. Useful, but a company’s own data and not independently reviewed.
• DSecondary reporting. Wikipedia’s summary of the standards, a brand’s blog page and a PDF used as cross-checks, the comparison rows in the Iran paper’s Table 3, the US Army survey read through a table, and a popular country table I tested.
• EEstimates and calculations. My conversions, differences and counts, with the method stated.

Primary versus secondary data

Primary source: the organisation or researchers who collected the data or wrote the standard. Secondary source: an article or table summarising someone else’s data. Where I could only read a secondary source, the table says so.

Source table

Methodology and limitations

How I built this page. I started with the standards and official records, then peer-reviewed measurement studies, then company reports, and only then articles. For each figure I recorded the source, date, sample and what kind of evidence it is. I read the ISO records for ISO 9407:2019 and ISO 19407:2023 on iso.org, though not the paid standards. I read Wikipedia’s “Shoe size” article for the systems, the country list and the formulas, and I checked the formulas against a brand blog page and an independent PDF. I read the Iran paper and its Table 3 at the publisher, the foot scan study on PubMed Central, the ZOZO report in its original Japanese, a BCN+R news report that gives the same national average, the Road Runner Sports page, and the US Army figures through an NC State summary table. The review on foot shape I read at abstract level. Everything was read on October 21, 2026. Where I calculated something, it’s labelled E and the method is in the dataset.

What I left out. I left out the Malaysian, Chinese and Indian rows in the Iran paper’s Table 3, which come from one study in a forensic science journal. Their men’s figures sit 21 to 40 mm below every other Asian men’s figure I have, and I couldn’t open the study to check why. I left out Brazil and Mexico numeric conversions, because I couldn’t confirm the offsets from a second source. I left out Australian women’s conversions, because charts disagree. I left out the ZOZO width figures, because the text I could read did not let me tell the columns apart. I left out brand-by-brand differences, children’s scales, shoe size history and any claim that sizes are rising, which I cover on the foot size page.

Limitations you should know about

• Conversions are approximate. The formulas are good to about half a size, and ISO itself calls its tables a guideline. Brands differ on top of that.
• The ZOZO data is from 2020. It is a company report on people who chose to be measured, mostly online shoppers, and I found nothing newer.
• Most country rows are second-hand. They come through one table in a 2018 paper. Three have fewer than 150 people per sex, and the originals could not be opened.
• The US Army figures are second-hand and describe soldiers. I could not open the original table.
• Different groups, different methods. Online shoppers, soldiers and students are not comparable, so I show the spread and do not rank countries.
• The directory is a sample. It lists 23 countries Wikipedia names, and the Brazil and Mexico details are incomplete.
• Coverage is uneven. I found no usable measured average for India, Brazil, Mexico, or most of Africa and Latin America.

Data freshness

Last full source review: October 21, 2026. Next scheduled review: January 2027.

Corrections. If you spot an error or have better data, email info@urbanstylefootwear.com with the subject “Data correction”. I’ll check it and note any change in the table above. How I test and review products is explained in our methodology.

For journalists and researchers

You can use the statistics and charts on this page with credit to UrbanStyle Footwear. Wherever you can, please cite the original source printed with each statistic. My own calculations are marked tier E and can be cited to me.

Media kit

Cite this page

<a href="https://urbanstylefootwear.com/shoe-size-by-country/">Shoe Size by Country 2026 by UrbanStyle Footwear</a>

Related resources

More from UrbanStyle

• Footwear statistics 2026 (hub)
• Foot size statistics 2026
• Shoe size statistics 2026
• Shoe size conversion calculator
• International shoe size chart
• US vs UK vs EU shoe size
• UK 8 to US shoe size
• Indian vs UK shoe size
• US to Japan shoe size
• China shoe size to US
• US to Australian shoe size
• US to Mexico shoe size
• Men’s to women’s shoe size
• Average men’s shoe size
• Average women’s shoe size
• How to measure foot size at home
• Shoe width guide
• Kids shoe size conversion chart
• Shoe return statistics 2026
• Online shoe shopping statistics 2026
• How we test shoes
• Contact

Primary sources

• ISO 9407:2019
• ISO 19407:2023
• Wikipedia, Shoe size
• Haflinger, EU formula
• Gilstrap, shoe sizing formulas
• Road Runner Sports, 2026
• ZOZO report, 2020
• Hajaghazadeh et al., 2018
• Hajaghazadeh et al., Table 3
• Jurca et al., 2019
• US Army survey (via NC State table)
• Footwear Science review, 2022
• World Population Review table