Distance between Bloemfontein and Johannesburg (straight line)

The straight-line distance between Bloemfontein and Johannesburg, both in South Africa, is 371 km (231 miles), 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

371 km

231 miles · straight line

Heading from Bloemfontein

29° (north-northeast)

initial compass bearing to Johannesburg

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.

BloemfonteinJohannesburgThe 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.

Bloemfontein to Johannesburg at a glance

Straight-line distance
371 km (231 miles), as the crow flies
Heading from Bloemfontein
29° (north-northeast) to Johannesburg
Heading from Johannesburg
209° (south-southwest) to Bloemfontein
Midpoint
27.6647° S, 27.1410° E, 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.
Bloemfontein, South Africa
29.1211° S, 26.2140° E (city centre)
Johannesburg, South Africa
26.2023° S, 28.0436° E (city centre)

Nearby city pairs

Questions

Is 371 km (231 miles) the driving distance from Bloemfontein to Johannesburg?

No. 371 km (231 miles) 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 Bloemfontein and Johannesburg measured?

Along a great circle: the shortest line over the Earth's surface, from Bloemfontein's centre (29.1211° S, 26.2140° E) to Johannesburg's (26.2023° S, 28.0436° E). 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.