Waist to hip ratio, or WHR, compares the size of your waist to your hips. Because it is so easy to measure it has been used in studies of health, beauty and even intelligence.

To get the number divide the size of your waist by the size of your hips. For example, Jennifer Lopez is 86-58-87 cm, so her WHR is 58/87 or 0.67.

For women, a high WHR, like 0.80, means they look more like a man. A low WHR, like 0.65, gives them a womanly hourglass figure.

Here are some beautiful women listed in order of WHR, from high to low:

0.78
Jean Underwood.
0.77
0.76
0.75
0.74
Aishwarya Rai.
0.73
Angelina Jolie.
0.72
Twiggy, Eva Pigford.
0.71
Gwyneth Paltrow, Paris Hilton.
0.70 =
Annette Bening, Jessica Alba, Chanel Iman.
0.69
Greta Garbo, Anna Nicole Smith, Kate Moss.
0.68
Lana Turner, Naomi Campbell, YaYa Da Costa.
0.67 tyra03.jpg
Rita Hayworth, Jennifer Lopez, Tyra Banks.
0.66
0.65 kim23.jpg
Bo Derek, Adriana Lima, Kim Kardashian.
0.64
Raquel Welch.
0.63 kenya63.jpg
Marilyn Monroe, Sophia Loren, Kenya Moore.
0.62
Brianna Francisco.
0.61
Melyssa Ford.
0.60 lizz76.jpg
Lizz Robbins, Esther Baxter.
0.59
Jayne Mansfield, Buffie the Body.
0.58
Elizabeth Taylor, Deelishis.
0.57
Brigitte Bardot.
0.56
0.55 bria.jpg
Bria Myles, Barbie.

Most thin women are more than 0.67 while most thick women are less.

Every year Playboy magazine picks a Playmate of the Year. Their measurements have been dutifully recorded in the Wikipedia. Here is how their WHR has gone up over time:

  • 1960s: 0.62
  • 1970s: 0.66
  • 1980s: 0.67
  • 1990s: 0.69
  • 2000s: 0.70

A study by Devendra Singh of the University of Texas showed that men prefer women with a WHR between 0.72 and 0.68. This is just a dressed up way of saying they like thin women.

Singh says this has been true since the 1920s according to the measurements of Miss Americas and Playboy centrefolds.

I do not believe it: white men in North America from about 1945 to 1980 clearly preferred women well below 0.68. See above. And most black men still do.

After all, Twiggy, at the upper end of Singh’s range of beauty, seemed shockingly thin in the 1960s - even to white people. But now that has become what white American women - far more so than white men - think is beautiful.

The changes that make a girl into a woman are the very ones that lower her WHR. More than any other single thing it shows that she is healthy and fertile. So it makes sense for men to like women with a low WHR.

One study even showed that women with a low WHR give birth to children with higher intelligence.

Another study showed that WHR gives a better idea whether someone will develop heart trouble later in life than does the BMI that doctors use. BMI only takes into account overall weight, not where it is. But belly fat is the worst kind for your heart. For women a WHR above 0.80 is dangerous, while for men anything more than 0.95 is bad news.

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