Women's Shoes Size Chart

Five systems on one foot, five different histories

The table above lines up six sizing conventions for the same range of feet, and none of the six were built by measuring the same thing. US and UK sizing both trace back to English shoemaking, counted in barleycorns — a unit equal to a third of an inch, chosen because barleycorns were a genuinely common, reasonably consistent small object in medieval England to lay end to end against a foot. EU sizing counts in Paris points, two-thirds of a centimetre each, a French unit with no historical relationship to the English one at all. Japan and South Korea skip coded units entirely and state the foot length directly, in centimetres and millimetres respectively. Six columns, four unrelated underlying measuring philosophies.

That's the single most important thing to understand before using this chart for a real purchase: every number here is a translation, not a shared scale wearing different labels. A US 8 and a EU 39 don't describe the same abstract 'size 8-ness' rendered differently — they're two independent historical answers to 'how big is this foot,' and the chart is simply where those answers currently land relative to each other for an average last.

Where each system tends to go wrong

US and UK sizing, sharing a common unit, convert to each other with unusual reliability — the gap holds steady across most of the range because both scales step in the same half-size increments. The wobble starts once EU sizing enters the picture: Paris points and barleycorns don't share a clean ratio, so a EU size that a French or Italian factory cuts for one last doesn't always sit at the same point on the US/UK scale that the same EU number does on a German or Spanish last.

Japanese and Korean sizing solve the coded-unit problem by not having one — a JP 24 is built for a 24cm foot, full stop, which is arguably the most honest number on this entire chart. The tradeoff is that a Western shopper has to actually know their foot length in centimetres to use it, rather than reading off a size they already know from a domestic shoebox.

Width is the variable this chart can't show

Every column above describes length. None of them describe width, and width varies independently — a foot can be a US 8 in length and still be notably wider or narrower than the 'average' US 8 last a given brand designed around. French and Italian women's lasts tend to run narrower through the midfoot than mainstream American ones; Japanese lasts, particularly domestic Japanese brands, run narrower still; and a hard-to-find but real practical fact is that a foot's true fit depends on matching both the length column above and an unlisted width assumption specific to the brand you're buying.

Half sizes exist unevenly across the six systems

US and UK sizing both commonly stock half sizes across most of the adult range. EU sizing sometimes does and sometimes doesn't for a given last — some continental factories only cut whole Paris-point sizes, which is why a shoe converting to 'EU 38.5' on paper might only be available as a 38 or 39 from a specific brand. Japanese and Korean sizing solve this differently again: because they state length directly, the 'half size' question doesn't apply in the same way — a brand either offers your exact centimetre or millimetre figure or it doesn't, and the granularity is a function of how finely that specific manufacturer steps its lasts.

What the numbers on this chart actually guarantee

They guarantee a standard, published relationship between six sizing conventions (see this site's methodology page for how that standard reference is compiled). They do not guarantee that a specific brand's EU 39 measures the same as this chart's EU 39, because individual brands round, adjust, and occasionally deviate from the general convention for their own last. For anything you're ordering sight unseen, the chart gets you to the right neighborhood in every system at once; the brand's own published foot-length figure, where available, gets you the rest of the way.

How to use this chart alongside the rest of the site

The US-to-EU conversion page goes deeper on the narrow-last issue than a general chart reasonably can, and the same is true of each dedicated pair page for whichever two systems you actually need. Don't yet know your own foot length? The measuring guide for foot length covers getting an accurate figure, since feet swell measurably over the course of a day and a morning measurement can undersize the shoe you end up ordering.

Seasonal collections shift lasts even within one brand

A shoe box from three years ago is a weaker reference than most shoppers assume, especially for a European label — treat an old receipt's size as a starting guess to verify against the current listing's own chart, not a fixed fact about your foot in that brand.

Marketplace resellers rarely convert consistently

A shoe listed on a resale platform with a stated size often reflects whatever the original seller assumed the conversion should be, not a verified measurement — a EU size on a resold pair originally sold in the US market may have been converted casually rather than checked against the brand's own chart. For anything bought secondhand across borders, asking the seller for the shoe's actual insole length in centimetres is a more reliable check than trusting the stated converted size alone.

This matters more for shoes than for many other garment categories precisely because the six systems on this chart diverge enough that a casual conversion error compounds easily — a seller rounding a EU 38 to a 'US 7' when the brand's own chart actually points to a 7.5 is a common, easy mistake that a stated insole length sidesteps entirely.

Boot calf width is a second figure this chart's length-only numbers don't capture

A knee-high or tall boot also has to clear the calf, a circumference this chart doesn't track at all, so a correctly converted foot-length size can still be uncomfortably tight or loosely gaping at the calf depending on a specific boot's own calf-width option, where a brand offers one — checking a boot listing's calf circumference specifically, not just the length conversion, matters for this one category more than for any other women's shoe style.

A shoe repair resole can change a shoe's internal fit slightly from its original size

Reheeling or resoling a shoe with a different-density replacement material than the original can very slightly change the internal volume and rebound feel of a shoe you already own, meaning a beloved older pair that's been resoled once or twice isn't always a perfectly reliable size reference for a repeat purchase in the same nominal size — worth remeasuring rather than assuming an older, repaired shoe still represents the size fresh off a shelf.

A wedge or platform sole changes how a converted length feels underfoot without changing the size

A wedge or platform sole raises the whole foot rather than just the heel, which changes the angle the foot sits at inside the shoe compared with a flat sole at the identical converted length — someone who finds a flat shoe fits precisely at a given size can still find a wedge in that same size feels different at the toe, a fit-angle effect rather than a sizing error.