Distance between Liverpool and Manchester (straight line)
The straight-line distance between Liverpool and Manchester, both in the United Kingdom, is 31 miles (50 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
31 miles
50 km · straight line
Heading from Liverpool
81° (east)
initial compass bearing to Manchester
Midpoint
53.4463° N, 2.6080° W
halfway along the straight line
Straight-line (great-circle) distance, as the crow flies. The road distance is longer.
LiverpoolManchesterThe 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.
Liverpool to Manchester at a glance
- Straight-line distance
- 31 miles (50 km), as the crow flies
- Heading from Liverpool
- 81° (east) to Manchester
- Heading from Manchester
- 261° (west) to Liverpool
- Midpoint
- 53.4463° N, 2.6080° W, halfway along the straight line
- Liverpool, United Kingdom
- 53.4106° N, 2.9779° W (city centre)
- Manchester, United Kingdom
- 53.4809° N, 2.2374° W (city centre)
Nearby city pairs
Other distances from Liverpool
- Liverpool to Birmingham78 miles
- Liverpool to Edinburgh176 miles
- Liverpool to Glasgow177 miles
- Liverpool to London178 miles
Other distances from Manchester
- Manchester to Birmingham70 miles
- Manchester to London163 miles
- Manchester to Edinburgh175 miles
- Manchester to Glasgow183 miles
Questions
Is 31 miles (50 km) the driving distance from Liverpool to Manchester?
No. 31 miles (50 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 Liverpool and Manchester measured?
Along a great circle: the shortest line over the Earth's surface, from Liverpool's centre (53.4106° N, 2.9779° W) to Manchester's (53.4809° N, 2.2374° 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.