Distance between Chicago and London (straight line)
The straight-line distance between Chicago (United States) and London (United Kingdom) is 3,950 miles (6,356 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
3,950 miles
6,356 km · straight line
Heading from Chicago
48° (northeast)
initial compass bearing to London
Flight time estimate, not a booking
~7 h 55 min
at about 800 km/h, in the air only
Straight-line (great-circle) distance, as the crow flies. The road distance is longer.
ChicagoLondonThe 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.
Chicago to London at a glance
- Straight-line distance
- 3,950 miles (6,356 km), as the crow flies
- Heading from Chicago
- 48° (northeast) to London
- Heading from London
- 298° (west-northwest) to Chicago
- Midpoint
- 55.6443° N, 48.7919° W, halfway along the straight line
- Flight time estimate, not a booking
- About 7 h 55 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.
- Chicago, United States
- 41.8500° N, 87.6500° W (city centre)
- London, United Kingdom
- 51.5085° N, 0.1257° W (city centre)
Nearby city pairs
Other distances from Chicago
- Chicago to Toronto437 miles
- Chicago to New York712 miles
- Chicago to Houston939 miles
- Chicago to Miami1,189 miles
- Chicago to Las Vegas1,520 miles
- Chicago to Mexico City1,689 miles
Other distances from London
- London to Birmingham101 miles
- London to Manchester163 miles
- London to Liverpool178 miles
- London to Paris214 miles
- London to Amsterdam222 miles
- London to Edinburgh332 miles
Questions
Is 3,950 miles (6,356 km) the driving distance from Chicago to London?
No. 3,950 miles (6,356 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 Chicago and London measured?
Along a great circle: the shortest line over the Earth's surface, from Chicago's centre (41.8500° N, 87.6500° W) to London's (51.5085° N, 0.1257° 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.