⚖️ Lbs to Stone Converter
Convert pounds to stone and back. The exact factor, a table of the values people look up most, and what each unit is actually used for.
Converting pounds to stone
One pound is 0.07142857143 stone, and one stone is 14 pounds.
stone = pounds × 0.07142857143
Getting the precision right
One stone is exactly 14 pounds, so the conversion is a clean division with no rounding error. The awkward part is the remainder: 160 lb is 11.43 stone, but nobody says that — they say 11 stone 6, meaning 11 stone and 6 pounds. The decimal and the spoken form are different notations for the same weight.
Where each unit is used
The stone is used for body weight in the United Kingdom and Ireland and almost nowhere else. It never took hold in the United States, where body weight is given in pounds alone, so an American hearing “eleven stone” usually has no reference for it.
Values worth knowing
| lb | st |
|---|---|
| 14 | 1 |
| 28 | 2 |
| 56 | 4 |
| 100 | 7.14286 |
| 112 | 8 |
| 140 | 10 |
| 154 | 11 |
| 168 | 12 |
| 196 | 14 |
| 224 | 16 |
11 stone is 154 lb or 70 kg. 14 stone is 196 lb or 89 kg. A stone of potatoes, the old sack size, is 14 lb or 6.35 kg.
Where the two units came from
The stone was a trading weight long before it was a body weight, and it was not always 14 pounds: a stone of wool was 14, a stone of wax 12, and a stone of glass 5. The Weights and Measures Act of 1835 fixed it at 14 pounds for general use, by which point it had been standard for wool for centuries. It was removed from legal trade in the UK in 1985 but survives entirely intact in how people describe their own weight.
Round the result to the precision your own work needs. These converters carry the full factor, which is useful for checking but rarely what you want to write down.
The natural follow-ups are the kg to lbs, for what this figure feeds into, and the grams to ounces, for the closely related case.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
How many pounds are in a stone?
Exactly 14. The conversion is a straight division, so 154 pounds is 11 stone with no remainder.
Why is 11.5 stone not 11 stone 5?
Because the decimal is a fraction of 14 pounds, not a count of them. Half a stone is 7 pounds, so 11.5 stone is 11 stone 7, not 11 stone 5. This is the most common slip when reading a digital scale set to decimal stones.
Do Americans use stones?
No. Body weight in the United States is given in pounds, so 11 stone is expressed as 154 pounds. The unit is effectively British and Irish.