Distance between London and Manchester (straight line)
The straight-line distance between London and Manchester, both in the United Kingdom, is 163 miles (262 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
163 miles
262 km · straight line
Heading from London
328° (north-northwest)
initial compass bearing to Manchester
Midpoint
52.4994° N, 1.1579° W
halfway along the straight line
Straight-line (great-circle) distance, as the crow flies. The road distance is longer.
LondonManchesterThe 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.
London to Manchester at a glance
- Straight-line distance
- 163 miles (262 km), as the crow flies
- Heading from London
- 328° (north-northwest) to Manchester
- Heading from Manchester
- 146° (southeast) to London
- Midpoint
- 52.4994° N, 1.1579° W, halfway along the straight line
- London, United Kingdom
- 51.5085° N, 0.1257° W (city centre)
- Manchester, United Kingdom
- 53.4809° N, 2.2374° W (city centre)
Nearby city pairs
Other distances from London
- London to Birmingham101 miles
- London to Liverpool178 miles
- London to Paris214 miles
- London to Amsterdam222 miles
- London to Edinburgh332 miles
- London to Glasgow345 miles
Other distances from Manchester
- Manchester to Liverpool31 miles
- Manchester to Birmingham70 miles
- Manchester to Edinburgh175 miles
- Manchester to Glasgow183 miles
Questions
Is 163 miles (262 km) the driving distance from London to Manchester?
No. 163 miles (262 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 London and Manchester measured?
Along a great circle: the shortest line over the Earth's surface, from London's centre (51.5085° N, 0.1257° 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.