Leagues to Miles Converter

How many miles are in a league?

This converter treats one league as exactly 3 miles, the land league familiar from English-language writing. Expressed in other units, one league is 4.828032 kilometers, 5,280 yards or 15,840 feet.

The league is a historical unit and not part of any modern measurement system, so there is no single official value. The mile used here is the international statute mile of 1,609.344 meters, which keeps the arithmetic simple: whatever number of leagues you enter, the answer in miles is three times larger.

miles = leagues × 3To go the other way, divide: leagues = miles ÷ 3.

How to convert leagues to miles

1. Type the number of leagues into the first box. Whole numbers and decimals both work.
2. Read the distance in miles from the second box. It updates with every keystroke, so there is no button to press.
3. If you need kilometers, multiply the miles by 1.609344, or multiply the leagues directly by 4.828032.

Example: an old travel diary says a market town lies 7.5 leagues down the road. Then 7.5 × 3 = 22.5 miles, and 22.5 × 1.609344 = 36.21024 kilometers. At a steady walking pace of 3 miles per hour that is a day trip of seven and a half hours, which fits the idea that a league was roughly one hour on foot.

Leagues to miles conversion table

Leagues that are not three miles

The word has been used by many cultures, so "league" can mean several different lengths. Check which one your source has in mind before converting.

• Nautical league: three nautical miles, which is 5.556 km or about 3.45 statute miles.
• Roman leuga: about one and a half Roman miles, roughly 2.2 km.
• French lieue and Spanish legua: these varied by region and century and ranged from roughly 4 to 5.6 km.

When a source states its league in kilometers or in nautical miles, convert with that figure rather than with this tool's factor of three miles. The nautical miles to kilometers converter helps with the sea league.

Leagues in books and stories

Jules Verne's Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Seas is often misread as a depth. The title counts the distance the submarine travels. With the 4 km French league of Verne's day that is about 80,000 km, roughly twice the circumference of the Earth (40,075 km). With the 3-mile league used here, 20,000 leagues is 60,000 miles, or 96,560.64 km.

In fairy tales, seven-league boots carry the wearer 7 × 3 = 21 miles in a single stride, close to the width of the English Channel at its narrowest. To turn a distance back into leagues, use the miles to leagues converter, and for metric distances try miles to kilometers.