International Bedding Size Guide: US, UK, EU, Australia and India (2026)

A "king" bed in London, Los Angeles, Berlin, Sydney and Mumbai are five different products. Buyers who assume otherwise end up with containers of unsellable stock, and manufacturers who quote against the wrong grid lose margin on re-cuts. This guide sets out the actual dimensions used in each market, plus the duvet, pillow and pocket-depth conventions that go with them.

Every table below gives inches first and centimetres second, because spec sheets travel between markets and rounding errors compound. Where a market uses several competing conventions, we have flagged it.

Mattress sizes by market

Three traps to note:

1. The UK has no queen size. A UK "king" (150 cm wide) is narrower than a US king (193 cm) and closer to a US queen. Listing a UK king as "queen" on a US marketplace guarantees returns.
2. The US Twin XL has no true UK equivalent. The nearest is a UK long single at 90 × 200 cm. Australia's King Single (92 × 203 cm) is the closest global match.
3. EU sizing is metric-native and comes in 10 cm steps (90, 140, 160, 180, 200 cm). Do not convert a US size to EU and round — cut to the EU number.

Flat sheet sizes

Flat sheets are cut generously in the US and Australia, moderately in the UK, and are often skipped entirely in Germany and Scandinavia where a duvet is used without a top sheet.

If you sell into Germany, France or the Nordics, budget for lower flat-sheet attach rates and higher duvet-cover volumes when you plan your bed sheet production run.

Fitted sheet pocket depth by market

Pocket depth is where most cross-market orders fail. Mattress thickness has grown fastest in the US.

Specify all-around knitted elastic (not corner-only) and state the elastic width on the tech pack. A 19 mm knitted elastic holds a deep US mattress far better than a 12 mm woven one, and the cost difference per set is negligible against a return.

Duvet and quilt cover sizes

Note that a UK duvet is square-ish (200 × 200 cm double) while a US comforter is markedly longer than it is wide. Cutting a US "queen" duvet cover to UK king dimensions will produce a cover that neither drapes nor fits. Our duvet cover range is cut to each market's native grid rather than converted.

Pillow and pillowcase sizes

Hotels in every market over-index on Oxford and European square cases for visual bed dressing. If you are quoting a hospitality programme, ask for the bed-dressing photo before you cost the pillowcase line.

Tolerances, shrinkage and labelling

Sizing is a finished-after-wash number, not a cut number. Build in:

• Shrinkage allowance: 3–5% on 100% cotton woven, 2–3% on cotton-rich blends, up to 7% on unmercerised carded yarn. Pre-shrink or sanforise where the buyer's spec demands ±2%.
• Dimensional tolerance: ±2% is the standard commercial tolerance on woven bed linen. US big-box buyers often tighten this to ±1.5%.
• Label language: US requires FTC fibre content, country of origin and care in English. EU requires fibre content per Regulation 1007/2011 in the language of every member state sold into. UK requires English. Australia requires care labelling to AS/NZS 1957.
• Size marking: print both the market size name and the centimetre dimensions. It halves buyer-service queries.

How to build a multi-market SKU plan

If you are launching across regions, do not create a SKU for every size in every market on day one. Sequence it:

1. Start with the two highest-volume sizes per market — Queen and King for the US and Australia, Double and King for the UK, 140 and 160 cm for the EU.
2. Hold one greige and one dyed fabric base across all markets so you can flex cut plans against demand instead of holding finished stock.
3. Add long-tail sizes (Cal King, Twin XL, EU 180 cm) once you have three months of sell-through data.
4. Keep the pocket-depth grid market-specific even where the mattress width matches — this is the cheapest way to avoid returns.

Read our order process for how sampling, size approval and bulk cutting sequence in practice.

Royal Mills cuts to US, UK, EU, Australian and Indian size grids as standard from our ISO 9001:2015 facility in Ahmedabad, India, including market-specific pocket depths, shrinkage allowances and compliant labelling. Send us your size grid and we will return a costed spec sheet. Request a quote or browse the bed sheet range.

Related pages

• Bed sheets and sheet sets — cut to any market's size grid
• Duvet covers — US, UK, EU and AU dimensions
• Pillowcases — Standard, Housewife, Oxford and European square
• Comforters — market-specific fill weights and sizes
• Quilts and coverlets — top-of-bed sizing by market
• Custom bedding and private label — own-label multi-market programmes
• Wholesale bed sheets — MOQs and volume pricing
• Hotel linen supplier — hospitality sizing and Oxford cases
• United States export program — US sizing, duty and shipping
• US bed sheet sizes explained — the US grid in detail
• Thread count guide for hotels — choosing TC per property tier