Canada - Do Canadians use cm or feet to state their height?

Do Canadians use cm, meters, or feet to describe their height? My guess is feet is quite common but cm, too. I think meters is not.

Cm since Canada is using metric system.

Nobody is using meters to describe heights.

Depends on their age. I'm 45, so I use imperial measurements.

My kids are too young to reliably state how tall they are, but my friends' kids describe their height using the metric system, usually in cm.

The short and confusing answer, as demosntrated by the other posts, is: both.

In common parlence a Canadian of any age will use feet and inches to describe their height. The reason for this is likely our proximity to the US and the former connection to Britain.

Canada does employ the metric system. It does so more successfully in some aspects (speed and distance and measurements) rather than others (height and weight).

In government documents (for example, a driver's licence) height will be expressed in meatric measurements, namely centimetres. For this reason, most Canadians know their height in feet and inches and many also know it is centimetres.

The short and confusing answer, as demosntrated by the other posts, is: both.

As I'm almost as young as gglave that's true as the introduction of the metric system started in earnest when I was in elementary school so an comfortable with some metric measurements such as celcius, kilometres (distance) or KPH (speed), litres, kilograms but still default to think of things such as height as imperial.

Most Canadians, especially those my age or older, I would venture would be more comfortable saying they are 6 ft tall and not 1.83 metres.

I think of my height in feet but grew up when the change over from imperial to metric occurred. Primary school in the early 70s.

Most forms I fill out use the metric system so I have finally memorized my height in cm. It took 30+ years to memorize.

While I know my height in feet/inches, I usually answer in cm when asked.

I was born in early 70's and only learned the metric system in school. However, I think of height in ft/in and only know my own height in cm because it is shown on my driver's license. For someone else's height I can only relate to it in ft/in and if necessary do the math in my head knowing that 12 inches is approx. 30 cm.

When I applied for my Canadian drivers licence, the guy at the service counter asked for my height, which I gave in cm. He rolled his eyes, then dug out a table and lectured me "that would be 5ft 9in", which he noted on the application.

When I received my document two weeks later, it stated my height in cm. :rolleyes:

Interesting flyer related note:
When Canada switched from imperial to metric measurements a major error was made on an Air Canada Flight from Montreal to Edmonton with a stop in Ottawa.

Air Canada Flight 143, a 767, ran out of fuel flying near Winnipeg.

The result was a truly harrowing story about the "Gimli Glider."

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D5AK6TG5zA4

Canada is like the UK, where it's a hybrid of metric and imperial. Even the Canadian Government sometimes annoyingly uses imperial. I remember reading a government article a couple of years ago about drinking at least 6 8oz. glasses of water a day. Being born after Canada switched to metric, I asked how much 8oz. is as I don't have a clue and I asked them why they're using imperial measurements. I received a typical non-answer from the government saying to use google to convert to metric as they apparently couldn't be bothered.

I wish we were 100% metric as metric measurements are so much easier to understand and generally use whole numbers e.g. 2mm or 7/16 of an inch...which is easier? If we weren't so close to the US, we'd be mostly metric like most of the rest of the world.

Heck, even the US uses some metric, but Americans don't know how to spell...e.g. a 2 Liter bottle of Coke as a case in point.

I used the Steven Wright (comedian) imperial hybrid for my height (5" 17" lol). My 10 year old kids say 4 feet whatever for their height, although they probably know it in cm as well. My son will usually measure something out in inches, but I think that has as much to do with his handyman grandfather working with him in building things.

In looking through the grocery flyers, most produce and meat is advertised by the pound with metric either in smaller print or not at all. Car ads still use mpg in bigger font with l/100km in smaller print, if at all.

It is a mixture. In the stores, produce and meat is often advertised at $/lb, but you are charged in $/kg. Cheese however is advertised in $/100g. :-)

It is a mixture. In the stores, produce and meat is often advertised at $/lb, but you are charged in $/kg. Cheese however is advertised in $/100g. :-)

Grocery stores sure do show the Canadian hybrid between metric and imperial. You buy a litre of milk and a 10 lb bag of potatoes.

Due to lack of enforcement of metric by the Feds, I think psychological pricing in grocery stores is why we still see prices that are sold by weight largely in pounds. 99 cents / lb sounds so much cheaper than $2.18 / kilo, even though it's the same freakin' price!

The deli dept is the ulitmate place that drives me nuts. All the prices are at the counter in $ per 100 grams, but then the flyer shows ham on sale for $6.99 / lb this week. ugh!! :mad:

I think we only use metric where the government or media have forced it on us.

For example, the news media gives temperature forecasts in Celcuis so the overwhelming majority use Celcuis for outside air temperature. Most older people still set their thermostats in their houses to Fahrenheit (I use Celcuis for that and I'm 37) and most people still use Fahrenheit to describe the temperature of a hot tub or pool.

We use kilometers and liters because the speed limits on the highways are in metric and gas is sold by the liter. Some car manufacturers have started advertising gas mileage in miles per gallon again. Trouble is that most of them are using the imperial gallon which is totally bogus since a) I've never bought gas in imperial gallons b) it inflates the number making the car look better. I think GM started this one.

I don't know anybody that knows both their height and weight in metric. The government can't force us to change our bathroom scales to metric.

When I applied for my Canadian drivers licence, the guy at the service counter asked for my height, which I gave in cm. He rolled his eyes, then dug out a table and lectured me "that would be 5ft 9in", which he noted on the application.

When I received my document two weeks later, it stated my height in cm. :rolleyes:

Down here in California, you can fill it out with cm and kg and the DMV's computer will convert automatically. This was over 15 years ago. This likely was due to large population from the south who might only know their height/weight in metric.

I think this captures it perfectly. Well worth the time.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G9LfPD7tsG0&list=PL0DC8C24CE3B6248D&index=3

Interesting flyer related note:
When Canada switched from imperial to metric measurements a major error was made on an Air Canada Flight from Montreal to Edmonton with a stop in Ottawa.

Air Canada Flight 143, a 767, ran out of fuel flying near Winnipeg.

The result was a truly harrowing story about the "Gimli Glider."

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D5AK6TG5zA4

Canada had switched to metric long before this occurred. What happened was the 767-200 was the 1st aircraft delivered to Air Canada that was actually in metric for fuel. So the rampers did the normal conversion of litres [of JET A] to pounds instead of litres to kg; which is what the computer on the US made boeing expected. Seems to me this was a 'when Boeing switched to metric' not a 'when Canada switched to metric'.

I use cm and kgs to state my height/weight. Being British (and Canadian) it feels foreign to me to use metric sometimes but I feel if there's something the Europeans on the continent are doing right, it's the metric system. I'm not full metric because when I fly I'm forced to use knots, nautical miles and US gallons. I also use a few Imperial units on a day-to-day basis for pints in a bar, mpg and bhp. I think if you told someone your car's engine produced 150 kW of power in Canada, they'd either think you owned an electric car or look at you like you just escaped from the madhouse.

And of course, when I'm State-side I give my height in ft, weight in lbs (not stone) and use largely American spelling ("-or", "-ize", etc.) and vocabulary (elevator, 1st floor, etc.). I didn't always feel this way but I feel I've developed strong enough ties to the US that I owe them a bit of respect in that regard at least.

Do Canadians use cm or feet to state their height?

There are no states in Canada.
Shouldn't it be: Do Canadians use cm or feet to province their height? :D

And French Canadians can Provence theirs ;)

I'm about gglave years old (-ish) but after living in several countries I'm perfectly comfortable in metric or imperial, and even can deal with Imperial vs. American as needed.

That said, Canadian publications using American spelling drives me CRAZY! I can sit reading a perfectly good investigative piece until I see color [sic] or center [sic] and I get a jolt and it interrupts my train of thought.

Dr. PITUK

Having lived in several countries, I am now fluent in metric.

Height is cm, not m
Weight is Kg, per 100g at the supermarket, never lbs
Temp degrees C
Speed/Distance is Km

... and its, dy/mn/yr btw ;)

That said, Canadian publications using American spelling drives me CRAZY! I can sit reading a perfectly good investigative piece until I see color [sic] or center [sic] and I get a jolt and it interrupts my train of thought.

Dr. PITUK

Agree. You have Microsoft Word's spelling correction to thank for that. Most people can't be bothered to change out of the default US English dictionary setting.

That said, Canadian publications using American spelling drives me CRAZY! I can sit reading a perfectly good investigative piece until I see color [sic] or center [sic] and I get a jolt and it interrupts my train of thought.
Agree. You have Microsoft Word's spelling correction to thank for that. Most people can't be bothered to change out of the default US English dictionary setting.
Having worked for a major newspaper and been a civil servant, it bothers me as well. "Or" spellings were actually quite common in publishing back in the days when saving every single letter was important, but it isn't the case anymore. MS Word perhaps played a role in "corrupting" the spelling of the general public, but it is no excuse for a respectable editor or writer in Canada not to follow Canadian OED spelling. The only exception I could think of is if you were writing for a primarily American audience.

The Canadian education system is too lazy to correct kids when they don't use OED spelling and it's created generations (not just one, several) of Canadians who haven't the faintest idea what is acceptable spelling in Canada. If it were up to me, I'd have all Canadian kids learn the differences between British and American spelling (which is a lot more than just "our/or") and which parts from each are acceptable in Canadian usage. That way, kids would be trained to use COED spelling at an early age and be able to switch over to standard UK or US spelling when they are abroad.