Bed and mattress sizes

19 standard mattress sizes across North America, the UK and continental Europe, in inches and centimetres, with the room each one needs.

Choosing between two sizes? Every pair worth comparing, with the width each sleeper gets and whether the same bedding fits both.

The names do not travel

This is the thing worth knowing before anything else. A UK King is 150 cm wide and a US King is 193.0 cm — a difference of 43 cm, which is more than the gap between a UK Single and a UK Small Double. The largest bed sold as standard in Britain, the Super King at 180 cm, is still 13 cm narrower than an ordinary American King.

The one pair that nearly lines up is the US Full and the UK Double: 137.2 × 190.5 cm against 135 × 190, so 2.2 cm apart in width and half a centimetre in length. Everything else with a shared name is a different bed, and bedding bought on the wrong side of the Atlantic will be visibly wrong rather than slightly wrong.

North America

United Kingdom

Continental Europe

Every size by width

How much room a bed actually needs

The figures above allow 60 cm of clear floor on each side and at the foot, which is roughly the width of a person walking sideways past a bed frame. Less than that and the bed fits the room on paper while making it unusable in practice — the usual symptom is a wardrobe door that will not open, since a hinged door needs its own depth of clearance again.

Width per sleeper is the number nobody prints

A two-person bed is sold by its total width, which tells you nothing directly useful. Halve it and the picture changes: a US Queen gives each person 76 cm, a US Full gives 69, and a UK Double gives 68.

The reference point that makes those numbers mean something is a single bed. A UK Single is 90 cm wide for one person, so anything under 180 cm of total width gives two adults less room each than a child gets in a single bed. A Full and a UK Double are both below that line, which is why they are routinely described as two-person beds and routinely slept in by one.

Length is the other half and it is simpler: North American sizes are 190 or 203 cm, UK sizes 190, continental 200. Anyone over about 185 cm tall wants the 200 or 203, and no width compensates for a bed that is short.

Buying a mattress in another country

The mattress is the easy part. What does not travel is everything sized to it — fitted sheets, mattress protectors, duvets, and the bed frame itself, all of which are made to national standards that do not line up. A US King mattress shipped to Britain fits no British bedding sold in any shop, and a UK King bought in Europe is 150 cm where the continental sizes go 140, 160, 180.

The pairs that genuinely interchange are few. A UK Super King and an EU King are both 180 × 200 cm and their bedding is the same. A US Full and a UK Double are 2 cm apart in width, close enough that sheets usually work. Everything else needs the centimetres checked rather than the name.

The costly direction is buying the bed abroad and the bedding at home, because the bed arrives first and the mismatch only appears when the sheets do.

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