Crow Flies Distance Calculator
Calculate the straight-line distance between any two cities in the world. Get instant results in kilometers, miles, and nautical miles.
Distance Results
Kilometers
Miles
Nautical Miles
Initial bearing:
Popular City Distances
Shanghai, China
Calculate distances from Shanghai
Population: 24,874,500
Beijing, China
Calculate distances from Beijing
Population: 18,960,744
Shenzhen, China
Calculate distances from Shenzhen
Population: 17,494,398
Guangzhou, China
Calculate distances from Guangzhou
Population: 16,096,724
Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of the Congo
Calculate distances from Kinshasa
Population: 16,000,000
Istanbul, Turkey
Calculate distances from Istanbul
Population: 15,701,602
Lagos, Nigeria
Calculate distances from Lagos
Population: 15,388,000
Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam
Calculate distances from Ho Chi Minh City
Population: 14,002,598
Did You Know?
Great circle routes represent the shortest distance between two points on a sphere
How It Works
1. Enter Cities
Type the names of your origin and destination cities. Our database includes over 33,000 cities worldwide.
2. Calculate
Click calculate to instantly compute the straight-line distance using the Haversine formula.
3. Get Results
View your results in kilometers, miles, and nautical miles, plus compass bearing and direction.
Frequently Asked Questions
As the crow flies refers to the shortest possible distance between two points on Earth's surface, measured as a straight line without considering terrain, obstacles, or actual travel routes.
Our calculator uses the Haversine formula which is accurate to within 0.5% for most distances. It accounts for Earth's spherical shape but assumes a perfect sphere rather than the slightly elliptical shape.
Straight-line distance is the shortest path between two points, while driving distance follows roads which curve around obstacles like mountains, lakes, and buildings. Driving distances are typically 20-50% longer than straight-line distances.
While airlines use great circle routes (similar to our calculations) for planning, actual flight paths vary due to air traffic control, weather, jet streams, and restricted airspace. Our calculations provide a good baseline estimate.
We display distances in kilometers, miles, and nautical miles. Kilometers are the international standard, miles are used in the US and UK, and nautical miles are used in aviation and maritime navigation.