Divide feet by 5,280
There are exactly 5,280 feet in a mile, so the conversion is one division. The number goes back to 1593, when the mile was fixed at 8 furlongs of 660 feet each. Because 5,280 divides so many ways, the halves and quarters all come out clean.
Quick reference — feet and miles
| Feet | Miles | Context |
|---|---|---|
| 1,000 ft | 0.189 mi | about 3 football fields |
| 1,320 ft | 0.25 mi | a quarter mile |
| 2,640 ft | 0.5 mi | half a mile |
| 5,280 ft | 1 mi | one mile exactly |
| 10,000 ft | 1.894 mi | — |
| 35,000 ft | 6.629 mi | a jet's cruising altitude |
| 138,435 ft | 26.219 mi | a marathon |
Rough head-math: 1,000 ft is about a fifth of a mile, and a mile is close to 5,000 ft (a 5 percent shortcut when you just need a ballpark).
A statute mile is not a nautical mile
The everyday "mile" is the statute mile of 5,280 feet. Aviation and shipping use the nautical mile, which is about 15 percent longer. Mixing them up throws distances off badly.
A nautical mile runs about 796 feet farther than the land mile. Pilots measure altitude in feet but route distance in nautical miles.
Worth knowing
- Yards sit in between. A mile is 1,760 yards; a yard is 3 feet. Football and golf work in yards, not feet or miles.
- Exact stays exact. 1.5 miles is 7,920 feet, not "about 8,000." Multiples of 5,280 have no rounding error.
- US survey foot is gone. The old survey foot differed from the international foot by 2 parts per million; NIST retired it at the start of 2023, so 1 foot is now exactly 0.3048 m everywhere.
Common questions
How many feet are in a mile?
Exactly 5,280 feet. This is a fixed definition set by English statute in 1593, not a rounded figure.
How do you convert feet to miles?
Divide the number of feet by 5,280. For example, 10,560 feet divided by 5,280 is 2 miles.
How many feet is a quarter mile?
A quarter mile is exactly 1,320 feet, which is 5,280 divided by 4. That is the standard drag-racing distance. A half mile is 2,640 feet.
