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Converting nautical miles to miles might seem like a simple task but is quite crucial to the world of logistics.  Every day, millions of goods are moved by the world’s oceans, with modern estimates suggesting that as many as 80% of all global cargo is transported, at one point or another, through the ocean. Yet, despite the prevalence of ocean travel, most people struggle to understand the difference between a nautical mile and a standard mile used for ground transportation.

That is why we put together a simple calculator you can use to immediately estimate the equivalence between nautical miles and standard land miles. Our tool is straightforward and only requires you to put the number of nautical miles you wish to convert into the text box below. Then, press the “Convert” button and the tool will automatically deliver the number of land miles that equates to your desired query. As simple as that!

Nautical Miles to Miles Converter

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What Are Nautical Miles?

Nautical miles are a unit of measurement used exclusively for ocean travel. They date back to the 1600s, and are designed to take into consideration a key factor that differentiates ocean travel to ground transportation. Namely, since ocean voyages tend to cover a much larger distance than their ground counterparts, it becomes important to consider the curvature of the Earth to give a more intuitive sense of length to be covered. 

More specifically, a Nautical Mile is defined as one minute of latitude. A minute of latitude, in turn, makes reference to the even division of the Earth used in longitude and latitude coordinate systems. In them, the earth is divided into 180 degrees of equal size covering the entire surface of our planet from North to South pole. Each degree, in turn, is evenly divided 60 units equal in size known as “minutes” and, as we mentioned before, one of these minutes equals a nautical mile.

So, intuitively, a nautical mile represents a 1/10,800 share of the length of the Earth from North to South pole.

How to Calculate Nautical Miles?

Today, converting nautical miles to our more frequent ocean miles is a fairly standard process. Since both units consider a standardized distance, we just need to find the equivalence between a nautical mile and a land mile to create a simple conversion rule between them. 

That equivalence, in turn, is a well known metric. According to international standards, one nautical mile equals 1.15 land miles—with the difference, again, coming from considering the curvature of the Earth to give a more accurate representation of ocean travel.

To equate nautical miles to land miles, all you need to do is multiply the number of nautical miles you wish to convert by 1.15. This, in turn, is precisely what our calculator above is designed to do. While it might be a straightforward process, we do encourage you to use our calculator for longer operations as to avoid any possibility of error in your estimates.

Why Are Nautical Miles Important?

Nautical miles are important because they better reflect the lengths of ocean travel than your standard mile. On a first glance, you might think that Nautical Miles only serve an archaic function when it comes to measurement—similar to many imperial units that have slowly fallen out of use in most countries around the world with the introduction of the metric system. However, nautical miles are actually a very precise unit of measurement that takes into account the curvature of the earth to express distances. Since ocean travel often covers broader distances than ground transportation, using regular land miles would underestimate the lengths needed to be traveled by 0.15 miles at a time.

Thus, to this day, the shipping industry—as well as sailors at large—have turned to nautical miles when expressing the length of ocean voyages.