Child Shoe Size Calculator

Child shoe sizing runs on foot length. Age is a rough guide and nothing more, because two children of the same age routinely differ by three sizes.

Sizes by measured foot length:

Where those numbers come from

They are not typed out, they are derived, which is why they step evenly instead of wandering. The US scale advances one third of an inch per size, which is the definition of the Brannock device the shop measures you on. Anchor that on youth 7Y, which is the same length as a men’s 7, and every size below it falls out by subtraction. Size 0C lands at a three-inch foot, about a newborn.

The C scale runs to 13C and then restarts at 1Y, and the two are adjacent sizes rather than a jump. UK sizes sit half a size below US in the C range, then do their own restart: 1Y is UK 13, and 2Y is UK 1. EU sizes are Paris points of two thirds of a centimetre each, measured on the shoe rather than the foot, which is why an EU number looks so much larger than the foot inside it.

Tips:

• Measure in the afternoon, standing, with the child’s weight on the foot. Feet spread under load and swell through the day, and a shoe fitted to a morning measurement pinches by evening.
• Measure both feet and buy for the larger. Most people have one foot bigger than the other by a few millimetres.
• Children’s feet grow 1–2 sizes a year up to about age 4, then slow down. One size is a third of an inch, so a well-fitted pair has roughly six months in it.
• Brands drift by up to a full size against each other. Use this as the size to try on first, not the size to order blind.