What is the most common body shape?

The rectangle is the most common female body shape at roughly 46% of women. Pear and spoon shapes are next at about 20%, inverted triangle at 14%, and hourglass at 8%.

What is the rarest body shape?

The true hourglass is the rarest female body shape at about 8% of women, because it requires bust and hips to be nearly equal while the waist is sharply narrower at the same time.

Can body shapes change?

Bone structure is fixed after puberty, but visible body shape can change through weight gain or loss, muscle building, pregnancy, hormonal shifts and aging.

What is the perfect body shape for a female?

There is no single perfect body shape. The hourglass is often cited in Western beauty standards, but all body shapes are normal. The goal of knowing your shape is to dress in a way that suits your natural proportions.

Types of Body Shapes

Body shapes describe the outline of your figure: how your shoulders, bust, waist and hips compare. They say nothing about size, weight or health, and every shape appears at every size. This guide names the eight female body shapes, shows each on a chart, lets you compare any two, and points you to the measurements that decide which one you are.

Looking for ectomorph, mesomorph and endomorph? That is a different system, explained in the body types guide.

Body Shape Chart: The Eight Female Body Shapes

Each mannequin wears tape rings at the bust, waist and hip. Under it, five bars show shoulders, bust, waist, high hip and hip, from left to right, on the same scale. The rose bar is the waist. The proportions are typical for each shape, not targets.

Hourglass

Bust and hips are close in size with a much smaller waist between them.

Hourglass body shape

Top hourglass

A defined waist, with the bust fuller than the hips.

Hourglass guide

Bottom hourglass

A defined waist, with the hips fuller than the bust.

Hourglass variants

Pear (triangle)

Hips clearly wider than the bust, with the waist only modestly smaller.

Pear body shape

Spoon

Hips wider than the bust and a shelf at the high hip above a defined waist.

Spoon body shape

Inverted triangle

Bust and shoulders wider than the hips.

Inverted triangle body shape

Rectangle

Bust, waist and hips within a few inches of each other.

Rectangle body shape

Apple

The waist is as full as the bust and hips, with weight carried through the middle.

Apple body shape

Compare Two Body Shapes

Pick any two shapes to see them side by side, and turn them around. The chart shows every measurement as a share of the hip, so you are comparing proportion, not size.

First shape Second shape

Pick two shapes to compare their proportions.

Reference proportions are typical for each shape. Real bodies vary within every shape.

How Many Body Shapes Are There?

There is no official number. Stylists, researchers and magazines draw the lines in different places, so you will see lists of five, eight, ten or more.

List	Shapes	Names
The classic fiveSimplified, common in magazines	5	Hourglass, pear, apple, rectangle, inverted triangle
This guideMeasurement-based	8	Hourglass, top hourglass, bottom hourglass, spoon, pear (triangle), inverted triangle, rectangle, apple
Longer listsStylist and blog lists	10+	The eight above, or the classic five, plus shapes such as athletic, diamond and round

Simplified lists fold the hourglass variants into one hourglass and the spoon into the pear. Longer lists add shapes that are easier to picture than to measure. We use eight because they are the shapes the measurement rules behind our calculators can tell apart, with apple added for figures whose waist is the fullest measurement.

Those rules come from Lee, Istook, Nam and Park (2007), building on the Female Figure Identification Technique that Simmons, Istook and Devarajan developed in 2004. The exact numbers are on the body type calculator page.

Body Shapes on Real People, at Every Size

A shape is a pattern of proportions, so it shows up at every size. Here is one example of each shape, in bust-waist-hip inches, worked out with the same rules our calculators use. Press Try it to open an example in the calculator.

Real bodies differ, so these show how the rules work rather than how anyone should look.
Measurements	Shape	Action
36-25-37	Hourglass	Try it
38-26-35	Top hourglass	Try it
34-26-40	Bottom hourglass	Try it
34-32-40	Pear	Try it
35-29-41with high hip 40.5	Spoon	Try it
41-33-35	Inverted triangle	Try it
37-35-38	Rectangle	Try it
41-43-39	Apple	Try it

The same shape at three different sizes:

Shape	Smaller	Medium	Larger
Hourglass	32-22-33	36-25-37	48-37-49
Rectangle	30-28-31	37-35-38	50-48-51
Pear	30-29-36	34-32-40	44-42-50

In this system a pear has a less defined waist than a bottom hourglass, which is why the pear examples above have a smaller drop from bust to waist.

Female Body Types: Women's Body Shapes

People who search for female body types, women's body types or body shapes for women are almost always asking about the shapes above: hourglass, top hourglass, bottom hourglass, pear, spoon, inverted triangle, rectangle and apple. Some lists give ten or more, adding athletic, diamond or round.

Which name you use matters less than what it tells you: where your body is widest, where it is narrowest, and how balanced your top and bottom halves are. That is what decides how clothes sit and which cuts suit you, and it is why the same shape can look different at different sizes.

Male Body Shapes

Male body shapes are decided by the gap between shoulders and hips rather than by bust, waist and hip curves. There are five builds, shown below on the same scale. Shoulders are measured all the way around.

Inverted triangle

Shoulders 5 in or more above the hips: the V-taper.

Trapezoid

Shoulders 2 to 5 in above the hips: balanced and athletic.

Rectangle

Shoulders and hips within 2 in, with little drop to the waist.

Triangle

Hips 2 in or more above the shoulders.

Oval

The waist is the fullest measurement.

To find your build and get fit advice for it, use the male body shape calculator.

How to Know Your Body Shape

Stand in front of a mirror in fitted clothes and compare three lines: the width of your shoulders, the narrowest point of your waist and the widest point of your hips. Which is widest? Which is narrowest? Is the waist a clear indent, or nearly straight? That gives you a first guess.

Bust and hips about equal, waist clearly smaller: the hourglass family.
Hips clearly wider than the bust: pear, spoon or bottom hourglass.
Bust and shoulders wider than the hips: inverted triangle or top hourglass.
Bust, waist and hips all close: rectangle.
Waist as full as the bust and hips: apple.

A mirror can mislead, and the line between neighbouring shapes is a matter of a few inches. For a proper answer, measure yourself with the body measurements guide and enter the numbers in the body shape calculator. To see your measurements as a 3D body, try the body visualizer.

Why Are Body Shapes Named After Fruit?

Pear, apple and banana are visual shorthand: easier to picture than technical terms. They are not scientific names, and plenty of people dislike them. Some researchers and writers argue that labels which turn a body into an object to be judged can encourage constant body monitoring, which objectification theory (Fredrickson and Roberts, 1997) links to shame and anxiety.

This guide uses the names as descriptions of proportion, not verdicts. How you describe your own body is up to you.

Is There a Perfect Body Shape?

No. Ideals change with era and culture, and most people do not match a textbook shape. A shape describes proportion, not health, fitness or worth, and every shape is normal.

If you are curious about health markers, ratios such as waist-to-hip are used for screening and they work at every shape. See the waist-to-hip ratio calculator. If thinking about your shape is causing you distress or affecting how you eat, a doctor or counsellor can help.

Can Your Body Shape Change?

Your bone structure is settled after puberty, but the outline you see can shift with weight change, muscle building, pregnancy, menopause and ageing. Measure again after a big change and check your result. The full picture is in what can change your body shape.

More Tools and Guides

Calculators and tools

Body type calculatorYour shape from your measurements, for women and men.
Female body shape calculatorAll eight shapes with styling notes.
Male body shape calculatorFive builds with fit advice.
Body visualizerSee your measurements as a 3D body.
Waist-to-height ratio calculatorIs your waist under half your height?

Guides

Body measurementsHow to measure yourself, plus US averages.
Kibbe body typesAnother way of describing a figure, based on line and balance.

Each of the six shapes with its own guide is linked in the chart above.

Body Shapes FAQ

What are body shapes?

Body shapes describe the outline of a figure based on how the shoulders, bust, waist and hips compare. They describe proportion, not size, weight or health.

How many body shapes are there?

There is no official number. Simple lists use five, this guide uses eight, and longer lists use ten or more. See the table above for how they differ.

What are the female body shape names?

Hourglass, top hourglass, bottom hourglass, pear (triangle), spoon, inverted triangle, rectangle and apple.

What are the different body shapes for women?

They are the eight shapes above. Each has its own guide with measurements, fit notes and styling, linked from the chart.

What are female body types?

In everyday use, female body types means women's body shapes, the eight listed above. The term is also used for somatotypes such as ectomorph and mesomorph, which describe build rather than outline.

Which body shape is the most common?

It depends on the group measured. In scan-based studies of US women the rectangle is usually reported as the most common shape and the hourglass among the least common. Figures vary between studies, so treat any single percentage with care.

Is there a perfect body shape?

No. Every shape is normal, and ideals change with era and culture. A shape describes proportion, not health or worth.

Are body shapes about weight?

No. Shape depends on proportion, so the same shape appears at very different sizes. The examples above show hourglass, rectangle and pear at three sizes each.

Can my body shape change?

Bone structure is fixed after puberty, but weight change, muscle building, pregnancy, menopause and ageing can change your measurements and so your result. Measure again after a big change.

How do I find out which shape I am?

Measure your bust, waist and hips, and your high hip if you can, then enter them in the body shape calculator. The guide above also gives a mirror check for a first guess.

Method and Sources

Lee, J.Y., Istook, C.L., Nam, Y.J. and Park, S.M. (2007). Comparison of body shape between USA and Korean women. International Journal of Clothing Science and Technology, 19(5), 374 to 391. Source of the female shape formulas.
Simmons, K.P., Istook, C.L. and Devarajan, P. (2004). Female Figure Identification Technique (FFIT) for apparel, Part I: Describing female shapes. View the paper.
Fredrickson, B.L. and Roberts, T.A. (1997). Objectification theory: Toward understanding women's lived experiences and mental health risks. Psychology of Women Quarterly, 21(2), 173 to 206.
The outlines and bar charts on this page use typical proportions for each shape. The male build rules are this site's own simplified version.