Make body have 100% of the browser height

I want to make body have 100% of the browser height. Can I do that using CSS?

I tried setting height: 100%, but it doesn't work.

I want to set a background color for a page to fill the entire browser window, but if the page has little content I get a ugly white bar at the bottom.

Try setting the height of the html element to 100% as well.

html, 
body {
    height: 100%;
}

Body looks to its parent (HTML) for how to scale the dynamic property, so the HTML element needs to have its height set as well.

However the content of body will probably need to change dynamically. Setting min-height to 100% will accomplish this goal.

html {
  height: 100%;
}
body {
  min-height: 100%;
}

As an alternative to setting both the html and body element's heights to 100%, you could also use viewport-percentage lengths.

5.1.2. Viewport-percentage lengths: the ‘vw’, ‘vh’, ‘vmin’, ‘vmax’ units

The viewport-percentage lengths are relative to the size of the initial containing block. When the height or width of the initial containing block is changed, they are scaled accordingly.

In this instance, you could use the value 100vh - which is the height of the viewport.

Example Here

body {
  height: 100vh;
  padding: 0;
}

body {
  min-height: 100vh;
  padding: 0;
}

This is supported in most modern browsers - support can be found here.

If you have a background image then you will want to set this instead:

html{
  height: 100%;
}
body {
  min-height: 100%;
}

This ensures that your body tag is allowed to continue growing when the content is taller than the viewport and that the background image continues to repeat/scroll/whatever when you start scrolling down.

Remember if you have to support IE6 you will need to find a way to wedge in height:100% for body, IE6 treats height like min-height anyway.