Yards to Kilometers

About Yards and Kilometers

Yards (yd): Three feet, or 0.9144 meters exactly since the 1959 International Yard and Pound Agreement; the historical yard was the distance from a king's nose to his outstretched thumb (legend, probably apocryphal). Common uses: American football (the unit of measure for the entire game), landscaping and lawn measurements, fabric in US craft stores, and a few other US-specific contexts.

Kilometers (km): A thousand meters, where the meter is the SI base unit of length defined by the speed of light. Common uses: Road distances, race lengths, geographic and astronomical small distances, and country-to-country travel measurements outside the US.

How the conversion works

Length conversions use the SI definition: 1 inch is exactly 0.0254 meters and 1 mile is exactly 1,609.344 meters. The factor above is the exact ratio between yard and kilometer.

The exact relationship is kilometers = yards × 0.0009144, which the calculator at the top of this page applies in both directions. Type into either field and the other updates immediately.

When this conversion matters

Converting between yards and kilometers comes up wherever length measurements move between systems — from one country's conventions to another's, from a scientific reference to a practical specification, or from one industry's working unit to another's. The calculator and reference table above cover the everyday range; for unusual values you can type any number into either field.