Belt Size Converter

This page converts a belt number you already have. If you are starting from a tape measure, the belt size from your waist measurement page asks the question that matters first: whether your number is a real measurement or the size printed on your trousers. Those two disagree, sometimes by several inches, and the belt has to go around the trousers rather than around you. Both pages use the same +2 rule, so they agree on the arithmetic.

Belt sizes vary by region. Most are based on waist measurement, but conventions differ.

US/UK belt sizes are in inches. They typically add 2 inches to your trouser waist size. So a size 34 trouser = size 36 belt.

EU belt sizes are in centimeters, measured at the middle hole.

Conversion:

• 1 inch = 2.54 cm (exact)

Common belt size chart:

Tip: Measure your existing belt from the buckle pin to the hole you use most.

The “add 2 inches” rule throws people, but it makes sense once you know belts are sized to the middle hole, not the end. Your belt size is roughly your trouser waist plus a couple of inches, leaving holes on either side for the inevitable changes after a big meal or over a year. A size 36 belt fits a 34 waist comfortably at the center hole.

Belts come in even sizes only. Every number in the chart above is even, and that is not an accident of which rows got printed. Dress belts are stocked at 30, 32, 34, 36 and so on, so a 33 inch waist has no belt of its own. Size up rather than down: a 36 on a 33 waist sits one hole in from center, which is fine, while a 34 on the same waist is at the last hole with nothing left to give.
Most belts have five holes spaced an inch apart, so the labelled size is the middle one and the strap covers roughly two inches either side of it. That is the real fit range, and it is why one belt survives a fair amount of change in either direction.

The most reliable method skips the chart entirely: take a belt that already fits, measure from the buckle pin to the hole you actually use, and buy that length. Sizing varies enough between brands and styles (designer belts in particular sometimes label by the EU centimeter length) that the number on the package is only a starting point. When ordering online, that pin-to-hole measurement in centimeters is what removes the guesswork, since a “size 36” from two makers can differ by an inch or more.