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.

Do Canadians use cm or feet to state their height?
 

Cm since Canada is using metric system.

Do Canadians use cm or feet to state their height?
 

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.

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. :-)

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: