A procedure to obtain a ratio of beam radii at final and initial states in arbitrary particle distributions is proposed, and is applied to the estimation of possible emittance growth for Gaussian and thermal equilibrium distributions. The ratios are estimated for Gaussian and thermal equilibrium distributions as a function of tune depression. The possible emittance growth as a function of tune depression and nonlinear field energy factor is also estimated with and without a constant radius ratio approximation. It is confirmed that the possible emittance growths are almost the same in comparison to the cases with and without the constant radius ratio approximation at each distribution.