Kilometers to Miles Converter

How many kilometers are in a mile?

One statute mile is exactly 1.609344 kilometers. The figure comes from the definition of the mile as 5,280 international feet and of the foot as 0.3048 m: 5,280 × 0.3048 = 1,609.344 m. Going the other way, one kilometer is 0.621371 miles, a shade over six tenths of a mile.

miles = kilometers ÷ 1.609344The same thing as kilometers × 0.621371. To convert miles to kilometers, multiply by 1.609344.

People often round the mile to 1.6 km, which is close enough for conversation but adds up to about a 0.6% error. Over a 100 mile drive that is almost a full kilometer, so use the full factor whenever the number matters.

Kilometers versus miles

The kilometer is a thousand meters and belongs to the metric (SI) system, which is the standard for road distances in nearly every country. The mile is an imperial and US customary unit. The United States uses it for roads, maps and speed limits, and the United Kingdom still signs its roads in miles and measures speed in miles per hour.

Travel is where the two collide most. A rental car in the US reports miles even if you think in kilometers, a European route planner shows kilometers even if you drive a car with a mph dial, and running events are advertised as 5K or 10K while many American runners track their pace per mile.

How to convert kilometers to miles

1. Type the distance in kilometers into the first box.
2. The distance in miles appears in the second box and refreshes as you type.
3. To go from miles to kilometers, multiply by 1.609344 or use the miles to kilometers converter.

Example 1 (running). A 10K race is 10 ÷ 1.609344 = 6.213712 miles, a 5K is 3.106856 miles, and a marathon of 42.195 km is 26.218757 miles, which is the familiar 26 miles 385 yards.

Example 2 (speed limits). A motorway limit of 130 km/h is 130 ÷ 1.609344 = 80.78 mph, and 100 km/h is 62.14 mph. The same factor converts a speed because the time unit, hours, does not change.

Example 3 (road trip). A route of 450 km works out to 450 ÷ 1.609344 = 279.62 miles.

Quick ways to estimate

• Multiply by 0.6. Fast, but it runs about 3.4% low: 100 km gives 60 instead of 62.14.
• Multiply by 5/8 (0.625). Much closer, only about 0.6% high. 80 km × 5/8 = 50 miles against the true 49.71.
• Fibonacci neighbors. Because 1.609 is close to the golden ratio, consecutive Fibonacci numbers are near-matches: 8 km ≈ 5 mi, 13 km ≈ 8 mi, 21 km ≈ 13 mi.

Kilometers to miles conversion table

Common mistakes

• Multiplying by 1.609 instead of dividing. A mile is longer than a kilometer, so the number of miles is always smaller than the number of kilometers.
• Confusing statute and nautical miles. A nautical mile is 1.852 km. For marine and aviation work use the kilometers to nautical miles converter.
• Mixing distance and speed units. km/h converts to mph with the same factor, but km and km/h are different quantities, so label your result.

For smaller units see kilometers to meters and kilometers to feet.