Feet to Miles (ft to mi)

How to convert feet to miles

Divide the feet by 5,280:

mi = ft ÷ 5,280

10,000 ft ÷ 5,280 = 1.89 mi. The divisor is exact: a statute mile is 5,280 feet, or 1,760 yards. The result also shows yards and kilometers. To go the other way, multiply miles by 5,280.

Feet to miles chart

Altitudes and elevations

Heights above sea level are given in feet in the U.S., and they are easier to picture in miles:

An airliner at 35,000 feet is about 6.6 miles up — high enough that a mountain range looks flat below it.

Walking, runways and city blocks

Short distances on foot or on a map are often given in feet. A typical runway at a large airport is 10,000 to 12,000 feet, about 2 miles. A Manhattan avenue block is roughly 750 feet, so about 7 avenue blocks make a mile, while about 20 short north–south blocks do. Hiking trails list elevation gain in feet and length in miles; 2,000 feet of climb over 4 miles is a steep hike.

Statute and nautical miles

The mile on road signs is the statute mile of 5,280 feet. Ships and aircraft use the nautical mile, defined as 1,852 meters, which is about 6,076 feet — 15% longer. Altitude in aviation is still given in feet while distance is in nautical miles, so a pilot descending 3,000 feet for every 10 nautical miles is working in both units at once. This converter uses the statute mile; if a chart or flight plan says “nm” or “NM”, divide feet by 6,076.1 instead. Survey records in some states once used the U.S. survey foot, 2 parts per million longer than the international foot; the difference is about 1 foot in 100 miles and was retired at the end of 2022.

Feet, yards, miles and kilometers

For shorter lengths, see feet to yards and feet to meters; for yards to miles, yards to miles. A foot is 0.3048 m, so 5,280 feet is exactly 1,609.344 m; for kilometers as the answer, use miles to km.