Waist-to-Hip Ratio Calculator: WHO Risk Cut-Offs

How to use this waist-to-hip ratio calculator

Choose Metric (centimetres) or Imperial (inches).
Pick man or woman — the WHO risk cut-offs differ by sex.
Measure your waist at the midpoint between your lowest rib and the top of your hip bone, and your hips around the widest point of your buttocks.
Enter both and read the large figure: your ratio and its risk band.

Why where you carry fat matters

Two people with the same weight and the same BMI can carry very different risk: fat stored around the waist sits close to the liver and other organs and behaves differently from fat stored on the hips and thighs. The waist-to-hip ratio captures that distribution in one number — how much of you is middle, compared with how much is hips.

The World Health Organization's cut-offs, drawn from large population studies, mark where risk of heart disease, stroke and type 2 diabetes climbs: above 0.90 for men and above 0.85 for women, abdominal obesity is the clinical term.

How the ratio is worked out

The ratio

Waist ÷ hip (same units)

One division of two tape measurements. Because both sides use the same unit, the ratio comes out identical whatever unit the tape is marked in.

The WHO bands

Men: under 0.90 lower · 0.90–0.99 increased · 1.00+ high — Women: under 0.80 lower · 0.80–0.84 increased · 0.85+ high

Screening bands, not diagnoses. A result in the increased or high band is a reason to complete the picture with blood pressure, blood sugar and cholesterol.

Waist at the cut-off

Cut-off × your hip measurement

The waist size at which your ratio reaches the WHO cut-off, given your hips — a concrete tape-measure line to watch.

Examples

Person	Waist	Hips	Ratio	Band
Woman, waist 78 cm, hips 100 cm	78 cm	100 cm	0.78	Lower risk
Man, waist 102 cm, hips 100 cm	102 cm	100 cm	1.02	High risk
Woman, waist 88 cm, hips 102 cm	88 cm	102 cm	0.86	High risk

Four waist-to-hip measuring mistakes

Hips at the hip bone

The hip measurement goes around the widest point of the buttocks, not across the hip bones. The bone reading is smaller and inflates your ratio unfairly.

Waist at the waistband

Trousers sit wherever fashion puts them. The defined point is the rib-to-hip midpoint — that is the number the WHO bands were built on.

Tape over clothes, or pulled tight

Both corrupt the reading in opposite directions. Thin layer, tape snug and level, breathing out normally.

Comparing across sexes

A 0.87 is unremarkable for a man and high for a woman. The bands are sex-specific because healthy fat distribution is — never rank two people of different sexes by the raw number.

Frequently asked questions

What is a healthy waist-to-hip ratio?

By the WHO cut-offs: for men, below 0.90 is the lower-risk zone and 1.00 or above is high risk; for women, below 0.80 is lower risk and 0.85 or above is high risk. The band between is increased risk — a prompt for attention, not alarm.

Waist-to-hip or waist-to-height — which is better?

They measure the same problem from two sides and predict risk similarly well. Waist-to-height needs only a height (easy, one boundary for everyone); waist-to-hip compares two circumferences, so it also reflects gluteal muscle and frame. Many clinicians look at both.

Where do I measure my hips?

Around the widest point of the buttocks, tape level all the way round, feet together. Not at the hip bone — that is a different, smaller number and it inflates the ratio.

Does waist-to-hip ratio work for athletes?

Mostly, with a caveat: large gluteal muscles lower the ratio, and very lean muscular builds can sit in odd places on any single measure. If you train seriously, read it alongside waist-to-height and body fat rather than alone.

My BMI is normal but my ratio is high — what does that mean?

It means your fat is concentrated centrally despite a normal total weight — a pattern linked to higher metabolic risk that BMI alone misses. Worth raising at a check-up, with blood pressure, blood sugar and lipids measured too.

What should I do if my ratio is in the high band?

Start with the boring, proven levers: daily walking, fewer liquid calories and less alcohol (both feed central fat), sleep, and strength training to build the glutes and legs the ratio rewards. Then re-measure monthly and get a clinician's panel if it stays high.

Privacy and important information

This calculator runs entirely in your browser: your numbers are never sent to a server, stored, or shared. A waist-to-hip ratio is a screening signal, not a diagnosis; pregnancy and recent surgery change waist measurements entirely, and any persistent high reading belongs in a routine check-up, not in worry.

Part of RahaKit's free health calculators.

Waist-to-Hip Ratio Calculator