Distance between Johannesburg and Rome (straight line)

The straight-line distance between Johannesburg (South Africa) and Rome (Italy) is 7,738 km (4,808 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

7,738 km

4,808 miles · straight line

Heading from Johannesburg

348° (north-northwest)

initial compass bearing to Rome

Flight time estimate, not a booking

~9 h 40 min

at about 800 km/h, in the air only

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

JohannesburgRomeThe 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 Rome at a glance

Straight-line distance
7,738 km (4,808 miles), as the crow flies
Heading from Johannesburg
348° (north-northwest) to Rome
Heading from Rome
165° (south-southeast) to Johannesburg
Midpoint
7.9159° N, 21.0049° E, halfway along the straight line
Flight time estimate, not a booking
About 9 h 40 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)
Rome, Italy
41.8919° N, 12.5113° E (city centre)

Nearby city pairs

Questions

Is 7,738 km (4,808 miles) the driving distance from Johannesburg to Rome?

No. 7,738 km (4,808 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 Rome measured?

Along a great circle: the shortest line over the Earth's surface, from Johannesburg's centre (26.2023° S, 28.0436° E) to Rome's (41.8919° N, 12.5113° 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.