EU to US Men's Shirt Size Conversion
| EU Neck (cm) | US/UK Neck (in) |
|---|---|
| 36 | 14 |
| 37 | 14.5 |
| 38 | 15 |
| 39 | 15.5 |
| 40 | 16 |
| 42 | 16.5 |
| 43 | 17 |
| 44 | 17.5 |
| 45 | 18 |
Sizing conventions vary by brand and by cut — this table shows the standard published conversion. Always check the garment's own size chart when one is available. See how these tables are compiled.
The arithmetic is simple; the American retail landscape is the real variable
A EU neck size in centimetres converts to US inches through plain unit arithmetic — divide by 2.54 and round to the nearest half inch a brand actually stocks, so a 40cm neck lands close to a US 15.75, rounding in practice to a 15.5 or 16. Where this gets genuinely more complicated for American shoppers than the raw conversion suggests is the sheer range of retail categories a EU shopper now has to choose between: mainstream department-store shirts, direct-to-consumer online brands, and a large and growing custom/made-to-measure online shirt industry that's become far more mainstream and affordable in the US than the equivalent custom-shirt market in most of continental Europe.
That custom-shirt option is worth knowing about specifically because it sidesteps the conversion question almost entirely — a EU shopper entering their own neck and sleeve measurements directly into a US-based made-to-measure shirtmaker's online form gets a shirt built to their actual figures rather than to whichever US ready-to-wear brand's rounding happens to land closest to their converted EU size.
US business-casual norms have loosened dress-shirt expectations
American office dress codes have drifted toward business casual more broadly and for longer than most continental European workplace conventions have, which is part of why a lot of mainstream US dress-shirt lines now include wrinkle-resistant, stretch-woven, and non-iron fabric treatments as standard options that aren't as universally offered by traditional European shirtmakers focused on more formal, tailored dressing — worth checking for if easy care matters as much to you as the size conversion itself.
Sleeve length still needs stating explicitly on the US side
US dress shirts commonly require both a neck and sleeve figure (16/34) where a lot of EU brands sell by neck size alone with an assumed proportional sleeve — if you don't already know your sleeve length, measure from the centre back of the neck across the shoulder to the wrist with the elbow slightly bent before ordering, since the American convention won't infer it for you the way a EU single-number size effectively does.
What a first US shirt order from an EU size needs
Convert your neck measurement to inches directly, consider a made-to-measure US shirtmaker if you want to skip brand-to-brand rounding entirely, and measure your sleeve length independently since American sizing asks for it as its own explicit figure.
Frequently asked questions
Is a EU 40 shirt always a US 15.75 or 16?
The centimetre-to-inch arithmetic is exact, but US brands sell in half-inch increments, so a converted EU size sometimes falls between two US sizes — round up for a shirt worn buttoned at the collar.
Is custom or made-to-measure shirting more common in the US than in Europe?
The online made-to-measure shirt industry has become notably more mainstream and affordable in the US than the equivalent custom-shirt market across most of continental Europe, and it sidesteps the conversion question by working from your actual measurements directly.
Do American dress shirts commonly include non-iron or stretch fabric options?
Many mainstream US brands do, reflecting a longer-standing shift toward business casual dressing than in most continental European workplaces, where traditional shirtmaking still leans more formal by default.
Why does the US size ask for a sleeve number I don't have from my EU shirt?
Many EU brands sell shirts by neck size alone with an assumed proportional sleeve, while US sizing commonly states neck and sleeve as two separate numbers — measure your sleeve length directly if you don't already know it.
Is this conversion as reliable as other US-to-EU conversions on this site?
More reliable, generally, since it's converting the same real neck measurement between units rather than approximating across differently built scales — the retail landscape and dress-code culture add more real-world variation than the arithmetic itself does.