Topic
How many feet are in a mile?
One international mile equals exactly 5,280 feet, which is also 1,760 yards or 1,609.344 meters.
At a glance
- One mile
- 5,280 feet
- Metric equivalent
- 1,609.344 meters exactly
Overview
The modern international mile is defined exactly in relation to the meter through the international yard and pound agreement. This fixed definition makes conversions reproducible across surveying, transportation, athletics, and everyday measurements, although specialized historical surveying units can appear in older records.
Why the number is exact
The international yard was defined as exactly 0.9144 meter, and a foot is one third of a yard. Since a mile is 1,760 yards, the resulting 5,280-foot and 1,609.344-meter relationships are exact rather than approximate.
Watch for specialized historical units
Older U.S. surveying work used a survey foot that differed slightly from the international foot. For ordinary distance conversion, the international foot and mile are the expected modern units, but archival geospatial data may require checking the unit definition explicitly.
Sources and review
MOOR's explanatory text is supported by the following source links.
- SI Units – Length — NIST
- U.S. Survey Foot — NIST