Distance between Birmingham and Glasgow (straight line)
The straight-line distance between Birmingham and Glasgow, both in the United Kingdom, is 252 miles (406 km), as the crow flies, measured from one city centre to the other. It is the shortest path over the Earth's surface; any road between them is longer.
Straight-line distance
252 miles
406 km · straight line
Heading from Birmingham
339° (north-northwest)
initial compass bearing to Glasgow
Flight time estimate, not a booking
~30 min
at about 800 km/h, in the air only
Straight-line (great-circle) distance, as the crow flies. The road distance is longer.
BirminghamGlasgowThe line is the great circle: straight over the globe, curved on a flat map.
Measure your own two places
Pick any two cities, addresses or coordinates in the calculator, or start from where you are standing. It gives the same straight-line distance, in miles and kilometres.
Birmingham to Glasgow at a glance
- Straight-line distance
- 252 miles (406 km), as the crow flies
- Heading from Birmingham
- 339° (north-northwest) to Glasgow
- Heading from Glasgow
- 157° (south-southeast) to Birmingham
- Midpoint
- 54.1790° N, 3.0305° W, halfway along the straight line
- Flight time estimate, not a booking
- About 30 min in the air at a cruising speed of 800 km/h along the straight line. Take-off, landing, the real flight path and any stops add more.
- Birmingham, United Kingdom
- 52.4814° N, 1.8998° W (city centre)
- Glasgow, United Kingdom
- 55.8651° N, 4.2576° W (city centre)
Nearby city pairs
Other distances from Birmingham
- Birmingham to Manchester70 miles
- Birmingham to Liverpool78 miles
- Birmingham to London101 miles
- Birmingham to Edinburgh245 miles
Other distances from Glasgow
- Glasgow to Edinburgh42 miles
- Glasgow to Liverpool177 miles
- Glasgow to Manchester183 miles
- Glasgow to London345 miles
Questions
Is 252 miles (406 km) the driving distance from Birmingham to Glasgow?
No. 252 miles (406 km) is the straight-line distance between the two city centres, as the crow flies. A road route is always longer, because roads bend around terrain and water, and MapGO does not measure driving distance or travel time.
How is the distance between Birmingham and Glasgow measured?
Along a great circle: the shortest line over the Earth's surface, from Birmingham's centre (52.4814° N, 1.8998° W) to Glasgow's (55.8651° N, 4.2576° W). This is what "straight-line distance" and "as the crow flies" mean on a globe. On a flat map the line can look curved.
How accurate is this distance?
Within about 0.5% for the two centre points. The figure treats the Earth as a sphere (the haversine formula), while the real Earth is slightly flattened, which shifts a long straight-line distance by up to about 0.5%. Measuring from another part of either city changes it more, since a large city can be tens of kilometres across.
Computed by MapGO from each city's centre point (GeoNames) with the haversine formula. All distances on this page are straight lines over the Earth's surface, not road distances.