How many people fit at a 5ft round table?

Eight comfortably, ten if you squeeze. A 150cm round has about 471cm of edge, so ten guests get under 48cm each, which is tight once glasses and plates are out.

Is a 6ft round worth it over a 5ft?

Only if you need the extra two seats. It adds two comfortable places but takes noticeably more floor space, and guests find it harder to talk across.

How much space does each guest need in total?

Roughly 1.1 to 1.4 square metres of dining area per seated guest, allowing for chairs pulled out and a service route. That is separate from the dancefloor, bar and band area.

Can I seat people on the ends of trestle tables?

You can, and it adds two seats per table, but those guests face down the length of the table and can only really talk to two neighbours. For a long formal meal, leave the ends empty.

How many tables do I need for 100 guests?

Thirteen 5ft rounds at eight each, or ten 6ft rounds at ten each, plus whatever you use for the head or sweetheart table. Always round up.

How many guests fit at a table?

Table sizing is mostly one number: how many centimetres of table edge each person needs. Get that right and the rest is arithmetic.

Ask three venues how many people fit on a 5ft round and you will get three answers. They are all correct, because they are answering different questions: how many chairs physically fit, and how many people can eat a three-course meal without knocking elbows. The gap between those two numbers is usually two seats.

The one number that decides everything

Every seat needs a slice of table edge. As a working rule:

60cm (24in) per person is comfortable. Room for a full place setting, a glass, and your elbows.
55cm (22in) is fine for a shorter meal or a younger crowd.
50cm (20in) is tight. People will bump arms and the table will look crowded once the glassware arrives.
65-70cm (26-28in) is generous, and worth it for a long formal dinner.

For a round table, the edge available is the circumference: diameter multiplied by 3.14. A 150cm round has about 471cm of edge, which is roughly eight comfortable seats or ten tight ones. That single calculation explains every number in the table below.

Seats by table size

Table	Comfortable	Squeezed	Notes
4ft round (120cm)	6	8	Good for a children's table or a small room
5ft round (150cm)	8	10	The standard hire round at most venues
5ft 6in round (168cm)	9	11	Less common, but a useful middle size
6ft round (180cm)	10	12	Reaching across for the water jug gets hard
6ft trestle (183 x 76cm)	6	8	Three a side, plus one at each end if you want
8ft trestle (244 x 76cm)	8	10	Four a side, plus the ends
Square (90cm)	4	4	One a side; charming in a small room, wasteful in a big one
Oval (240cm long)	10	12	Behaves like a trestle with rounded ends

Two things to notice. First, a 6ft round only seats two more than a 5ft round despite being much wider, because circumference grows more slowly than the space the table eats on the floor. Second, on trestles the ends are optional. Seating the ends is fine for a family dinner and awkward for a wedding, because those two guests face the length of the table and can only talk to two people.

Banquet rows

Long banquet rows are trestles pushed end to end. The maths changes slightly: once tables are joined, you lose the end seats except at the two extreme ends of the row. So a row of five 6ft trestles gives you three a side on each table, thirty seats, plus two at the far ends if you use them.

Rows read as one long table, so measure the run as well as the seats. Five joined 6ft trestles is over 9 metres of table, which needs a room with a long clear axis and a service route down both sides. Ask the venue how many rows the floor takes before you plan around them.

Worked example

You have 88 guests and the venue has 5ft rounds. At eight per table that is 11 tables exactly. At ten per table it is nine tables — but 88 people across nine tables means eight of them are full at ten, so almost everybody is squeezed.

The middle answer is usually best: ten tables of nine. That is 90 seats for 88 people, so two seats spare and nowhere that feels crammed. And if eight people drop out you are down to 80, which nine tables of nine still covers, though releasing the tenth table means reseating its guests.

How many tables for 50, 100, 150 or 200

Guests	5ft rounds (8 each)	6ft rounds (10 each)	Banquet rows, 6ft trestles (6 each)
50	7	5	9
100	13	10	17
150	19	15	25
200	25	20	34

Round up, always. Twelve and a half tables is thirteen tables. And add the head table or sweetheart table separately, because it rarely takes a standard number of people; see head table vs sweetheart table for how that changes the count.

Floor space, not just seats

The seats fit long before the room does. A 150cm round with chairs pulled out occupies a circle of roughly 3 metres, and you want about 1.5 metres between the backs of chairs on neighbouring tables so waiting staff and guests can pass. In practice, plan on something like 1.1 to 1.4 square metres per seated guest for the dining area alone, before the dancefloor, bar and band.

This is why the venue's own number is worth more than any calculation: they know how many tables have fitted in that room before. Use the maths above to sense-check them, not to overrule them.

Odd numbers and awkward remainders

Guest lists never divide neatly. Three ways out, in order of preference:

Vary the seat count per table. Eight here, ten there. Nobody counts the chairs at the next table.
Mix table sizes. One 6ft round among 5ft rounds absorbs a group of eleven without splitting it.
Change the shape. A rectangle or an L-shape can swallow a group that a circle cannot.

In the planner you set the seat count on each table individually, and you can switch a table between round, rectangle, square, oval, U-shape, L-shape and banquet without rebuilding it. The warning at the top tells you the moment guests outnumber seats, which is the mistake this whole page exists to prevent.

A few special cases

Children. Two children can share the space of one adult on a round table, and a 4ft round of six children is easier to supervise than six children scattered across the room.

Wheelchair users. Remove a chair rather than squeezing one in. Leave about 90cm of clear approach and check the table has no central pedestal foot in the way.

Buffets. You can seat slightly tighter, because there is no full place setting from the start, but keep the route to the buffet wide.

Speeches. If people will be turning to watch, favour rounds over long rows. Half a banquet row spends the speeches with its back to the speaker.

Once you know your table count, the next job is putting names on them. Start with the step-by-step method, then build the plan itself in tablout.

Try the table sizes on a real floor plan

Set the seat count on every table, switch between seven shapes, and see the warning the moment guests outnumber seats.

Open the planner →

Common questions

How many people fit at a 5ft round table?: Eight comfortably, ten if you squeeze. A 150cm round has about 471cm of edge, so ten guests get under 48cm each, which is tight once glasses and plates are out.
Is a 6ft round worth it over a 5ft?: Only if you need the extra two seats. It adds two comfortable places but takes noticeably more floor space, and guests find it harder to talk across.
How much space does each guest need in total?: Roughly 1.1 to 1.4 square metres of dining area per seated guest, allowing for chairs pulled out and a service route. That is separate from the dancefloor, bar and band area.
Can I seat people on the ends of trestle tables?: You can, and it adds two seats per table, but those guests face down the length of the table and can only really talk to two neighbours. For a long formal meal, leave the ends empty.
How many tables do I need for 100 guests?: Thirteen 5ft rounds at eight each, or ten 6ft rounds at ten each, plus whatever you use for the head or sweetheart table. Always round up.