Nautical Miles to Miles Converter

About this calculator

A nautical mile is defined as exactly 1.852 kilometres (an international standard adopted in 1929), which converts to about 1.15078 statute miles — the "regular" mile used on land. The nautical mile isn't an arbitrary round number: it was originally defined as the length of one minute of arc along a meridian of the Earth, which is why it ties so directly to latitude and to speed measured in knots (nautical miles per hour).

Mariners and pilots navigate almost exclusively in nautical miles and knots because of that link to latitude — one degree of latitude is always 60 nautical miles, making chart plotting and dead-reckoning straightforward — so converting to statute miles or kilometres is mainly needed when communicating distances or speeds to a land-based, non-nautical audience.