Feet to Miles Converter

How many feet are in a mile?

A statute mile, the ordinary mile used on roads in the United States and the United Kingdom, is 5,280 feet. That is the same as 1,760 yards, eight furlongs, or exactly 1.609344 kilometers.

miles = feet ÷ 5,280To convert miles to feet, multiply by 5,280.

The number looks odd because the mile and the foot grew up separately. The mile descends from the Roman mille passus, a thousand paces, and was later fixed at eight furlongs of 660 feet in England, which is how it landed on 5,280.

Feet and miles in practice

Feet cover short and medium lengths: a room, a runway, a cable run or the height of a hill. Miles take over once distances get large enough that the feet become unwieldy. Converting between them is common for runway and airfield data, elevation figures, fiber-optic and pipeline routes, and property or trail descriptions that mix units.

Do not confuse the statute mile with the nautical mile used at sea and in the air. A nautical mile is 1,852 m, which is about 6,076.1 feet. Use the miles to nautical miles converter for that comparison.

How to convert feet to miles

1. Type the number of feet into the first box.
2. The lower box shows the same distance in miles, updating as you type.
3. Going back from miles, multiply by 5,280.

Example 1. An airport has a 7,500 ft runway. 7,500 ÷ 5,280 = 1.420455 miles.

Example 2. A telecom crew lays 25,000 ft of cable. 25,000 ÷ 5,280 = 4.734848 miles.

Example 3. A driveway that is 2,640 ft long is exactly half a mile, since 2,640 is half of 5,280.

Feet to miles conversion table

Quick mental estimate

For a rough figure, divide by 5,000. This overstates the answer by about 5.6% because 5,280 is a little bigger than 5,000, but it is close enough to judge whether a number is sensible. Remember the landmarks instead: 1,320 ft is a quarter mile, 2,640 ft is half a mile, and 5,280 ft is the full mile.

For metric output, see the feet to kilometers converter or the feet to meters converter.