Kilometers to Miles

Driving abroad is where this conversion matters most. Road distances in Canada, Mexico and most of Europe are in kilometers, while the US and UK use miles. A 300 km leg is about 186 mi, roughly three hours at highway speed either way. Speed limits convert with the same factor; see km/h to mph.

Fuel economy needs the same care: European cars are rated in liters per 100 km and US cars in miles per gallon, so comparing them means converting both distance and volume.

The international mile is 5,280 ft, and since the foot is exactly 0.3048 m, the mile is exactly 1,609.344 m. NIST lists the factor in SP 811. The kilometer-to-mile figure 0.621371 is the reverse of that and never ends, so every printed version is rounded.

Sailors and pilots use a different mile: the nautical mile of 1,852 m, the basis of the knot. For the feet inside a mile, see miles to feet.

Before 1959 the US and UK miles differed very slightly, because their yards did; the agreement that year gave them the same length. The only land mile that still differed afterwards was the US survey mile, which NIST retired for new work at the end of 2022.