Maintain the aspect ratio of a div with CSS

Just create a wrapper <div> with a percentage value for padding-bottom, like this:

.demoWrapper {
  padding: 10px;
  background: white;
  box-sizing: border-box;
  resize: horizontal;
  border: 1px dashed;
  overflow: auto;
  max-width: 100%;
  height: calc(100vh - 16px);
}

div {
  width: 100%;
  padding-bottom: 75%;
  background: gold; /** <-- For the demo **/
}

<div class="demoWrapper">
  <div></div>
</div>

It will result in a <div> with height equal to 75% of the width of its container (a 4:3 aspect ratio).

This relies on the fact that for padding :

The percentage is calculated with respect to the width of the generated box's containing block [...] (source: w3.org, emphasis mine)

Padding-bottom values for other aspect ratios and 100% width :

aspect ratio  | padding-bottom value
--------------|----------------------
    16:9      |       56.25%
    4:3       |       75%
    3:2       |       66.66%
    8:5       |       62.5%

Placing content in the div :

In order to keep the aspect ratio of the div and prevent its content from stretching it, you need to add an absolutely positioned child and stretch it to the edges of the wrapper with:

div.stretchy-wrapper {
  position: relative;
}

div.stretchy-wrapper > div {
  position: absolute;
  top: 0; bottom: 0; left: 0; right: 0;
}

Here's a demo and another more in depth demo

2022 solution - use the aspect-ratio CSS property

<div class='demo'></div>

.demo {
  background: black;
  width: 500px;
  aspect-ratio: 4/3;
}

Update: this solution is now supported by all evergreen browsers

There are several ways to specify a fixed aspect ratio on an element like a div, here are 2 of them:

1. The aspect-ratio CSS property

div {
  background: teal;
  width: 50%;
  aspect-ratio: 1 / 1;
}

<div>aspect-ratio: 1 / 1;</div>

This is the most simple and flexible solution. It directly specifies a fixed width to height (or height to width) aspect ratio for an element. This means you can also specify an aspect ratio according to the elements height.
It doesn't rely on the parent width (like the padding technique) or the viewport size (like the following vw unit technique) it relies on the element's own width or height More info on MDN. That is what make it so powerfull compared to other workarounds.

This is a modern property (2021). All modern browsers support it, see caniuse for precise browser support.

Here are a few examples with different aspect ratios :

.ar-1-1  {aspect-ratio: 1 / 1;}
.ar-3-2  {aspect-ratio: 3 / 2;}
.ar-4-3  {aspect-ratio: 4 / 3;}
.ar-16-9 {aspect-ratio: 16 / 9;}
.ar-2-3  {aspect-ratio: 2 / 3;}
.ar-3-4  {aspect-ratio: 3 / 4;}
.ar-9-16 {aspect-ratio: 9 / 16;}


/** For the demo : **/
body {
  display:flex;
  flex-wrap:wrap;
  align-items:flex-start;
}
div {
  background: teal;
  width: 23%;
  margin:1%;
  padding:20px 0;
  box-sizing: border-box;
  color:#fff;
  text-align:center;
}

<div class="ar-1-1">aspect-ratio: 1 / 1;</div>
<div class="ar-3-2">aspect-ratio: 3 / 2;</div>
<div class="ar-4-3">aspect-ratio: 4 / 3;</div>
<div class="ar-16-9">aspect-ratio: 16 / 9;</div>
<div class="ar-2-3">aspect-ratio: 2 / 3;</div>
<div class="ar-3-4">aspect-ratio: 3 / 4;</div>
<div class="ar-9-16">aspect-ratio: 9 / 16;</div>

2. Using vw units:

You can use vw units for both the width and height of the element. This allows the element's aspect ratio to be preserved, based on the viewport width.

vw : 1/100th of the width of the viewport. [MDN]

Alternatively, you can also use vh for viewport height, or even vmin/vmax to use the lesser/greater of the viewport dimensions (discussion here).

Example: 1:1 aspect ratio

div {
  width: 20vw;
  height: 20vw;
  background: gold;
}

<div></div>

For other aspect ratios, you can use the following table to calculate the value for height according to the width of the element :

aspect ratio  |  multiply width by
-----------------------------------
     1:1      |         1
     1:3      |         3
     4:3      |        0.75
    16:9      |       0.5625

Example: 4x4 grid of square divs

body {
  display: flex;
  flex-wrap: wrap;
  justify-content: space-between;
}
div {
  width: 23vw;
  height: 23vw;
  margin: 0.5vw auto;
  background: gold;
}

<div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div>

Here is a Fiddle with this demo and here is a solution to make a responsive grid of squares with verticaly and horizontaly centered content.

Browser support for vh/vw units is IE9+ see canIuse for more info