Distance between Johannesburg and Madrid (straight line)

The straight-line distance between Johannesburg (South Africa) and Madrid (Spain) is 8,102 km (5,034 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

8,102 km

5,034 miles · straight line

Heading from Johannesburg

335° (north-northwest)

initial compass bearing to Madrid

Flight time estimate, not a booking

~10 h 10 min

at about 800 km/h, in the air only

Straight-line (great-circle) distance, as the crow flies. The road distance is longer.

JohannesburgMadridThe 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.

Johannesburg to Madrid at a glance

Straight-line distance
8,102 km (5,034 miles), as the crow flies
Heading from Johannesburg
335° (north-northwest) to Madrid
Heading from Madrid
150° (south-southeast) to Johannesburg
Midpoint
7.3838° N, 13.5051° E, halfway along the straight line
Flight time estimate, not a booking
About 10 h 10 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.
Johannesburg, South Africa
26.2023° S, 28.0436° E (city centre)
Madrid, Spain
40.4165° N, 3.7026° W (city centre)

Nearby city pairs

Questions

Is 8,102 km (5,034 miles) the driving distance from Johannesburg to Madrid?

No. 8,102 km (5,034 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 Johannesburg and Madrid measured?

Along a great circle: the shortest line over the Earth's surface, from Johannesburg's centre (26.2023° S, 28.0436° E) to Madrid's (40.4165° N, 3.7026° 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.