Find midpoint with the Midpoint Calculator

Finds the geographic midpoint (geographic center) for two or more places. For example, The point that lies halfway between Chicago and Los Angeles is located 22 miles (35 km) southwest of Limon, Colorado at latitude 38°58'N and longitude 103°52'W. The midpoint can be viewed on a Google map. Using the calculator

Other free online tools by GeoMidpoint

Bearing/Distance Calculator

The Bearing/Distance Calculator finds the destination point given a starting point, bearing and distance. The points can be viewed on a Google map.

Random Point Generator

The Random Point Generator generates one or more points at random locations on the surface of the earth. You can throw one or more virtual darts at a Google map and see where they land at.

Using the midpoint calculator

Add each city, town or other location for which you want to find the midpoint to the 'Your Places' list in any order. The latitude and longitude of the midpoint are automatically calculated and displayed in the 'Midpoint' box for the places currently in the list. See Help for detailed instructions. You may use any or all of the following three methods to select your locations:

1. Search for place
   A fast search of millions of cities, towns and other places from online geocoder services. Type in a city or town and country/state, for example: 'London, UK' or 'Atlanta, GA'. In the US, Canada and other selected countries you can specify a street address such as: '350 Fifth Ave, New York, NY'.
2. Select cities by region
   The calculator provides you easy access to 500 world cities in six geographical regions. The cities are arranged by region and state/country.
3. Specify latitude and longitude
   Use this option to enter the latitude and longitude for any location. Most common latitude and longitude formats can be used. Lists of multiple latitude and longitude data can be imported from other sources into the calculator.

The 'Time in location' is optional and can be used to enter the amount of time that you have spent in each city or other location. If you leave the years, months and days blank then all of your locations will be weighted equally for the calculation, otherwise locations with longer times will be weighted more heavily than locations with shorter times.

You can also weight your locations by other weighting factors such as population, the number of employees living in different cities etc. Enter your population or other data into the 'Weight' box.

The calculator gives you three Calculation methods to choose from, and there are reasons for choosing one method over another. In addition to the default 'Geographic midpoint' method which is based on the center of gravity, The 'Center of distance' method finds the exact point that minimizes the combined travel distance from all locations in 'Your Places'. The third method is 'Average latitude/longitude' which calculates the mathematical average for the locations in 'Your Places' using a flat earth model.

What it can be used for

Some possible uses for the calculator:

• Select all cities and towns that you have lived in, then view those places on a map along with a marker pointing at your exact average location.
• Find the midpoint of an airline flight between two cities. Note that the flight paths of commercial flights may vary somewhat, and may not pass directly over the true midpoint.
• Meet someone halfway. Find the point that is halfway between your house and your friend's.
• Trip planning--find a central hub for places you are going to visit.
• Find a center location for a convention or family reunion that will be fair and equitable for those who are traveling.
• Find a central place for a new business or facility that will serve surrounding population centers.
• Find latitude and longitude for millions of cities, towns and other places worldwide.
• Midpoint locations can be visited using GPS units. Please read these GPS guidelines before you start your trip.

How it works

The calculator calculates the geographic midpoint based on the assumption of a spherical earth. The geographic midpoint for any two points on the earth's surface is located halfway along the great circle route which is the shortest route that runs between both points, and would be like stretching a string between the two points on a world globe then finding the middle of the string. The geographic midpoint for three or more points on the earth's surface is the center of gravity (center of mass or average location) for all of the points.

To help visualize the concept of geographic midpoint and center of gravity, imagine that a small weight is positioned at the location of various cities on a world globe. Now imagine that the globe is allowed to rotate freely until the most heavily weighted part of the globe is pulled by gravity until it is facing downward. The lowest (and heaviest) part of the globe is the center of gravity and the geographic midpoint for all of the weighted cities. See Calculation methods for a detailed description.

Map projections

A lot of distortion occurs when the earth is projected onto a flat surface, for instance, a map using the Mercator Projection. Because of this distortion, if you plot two points on a flat map along with the corresponding calculated midpoint, you will find that the midpoint is often far out of alignment with the two points. This can be easily illustrated by an example. If you place a ruler on a flat wall map between Phoenix, Arizona and Kabul, Afghanistan, the midpoint for the two cities will appear to be in the Atlantic Ocean a few hundred miles off the tip of Portugal. However, the Geographic Midpoint Calculator gives the true midpoint coordinates of latitude 88°57'N 172°57'W, which is 72 miles (116 km) from the North Pole. You can verify this by stretching a string between the two cities on a world globe.

In general, a true midpoint in the Northern Hemisphere will be farther north than you might expect it to be when viewed on a flat map, and conversely, a true midpoint in the Southern Hemisphere will be farther south than you might expect it to be. For cities that are close together this apparent difference between a spherical earth and a flat map is only slight, but the difference can be great for cities with a lot of longitude separation, such as cities on different continents. Also, there tends to be More distortion in the polar regions than near the equator. So if your calculated midpoint is farther north than you expect it to be, this is the explanation. Usually, if you take a look at a world globe it will begin to make sense.

Geo Challenge

Can you use your geographical knowledge to answer these questions?

Name the country where you can see sunrise over the Pacific Ocean on one coast and sunset in the Atlantic Ocean on the opposite coast. This country is part of a continent, not an island.

Is it typical for it to snow in Hawaii during most years?

View past Geo Challenge questions and answers

Contact and miscellaneous

The data used for the calculations comes from various Sources and may contain inaccuracies and errors. If you find that the data for any city is obviously in error, please report it. Send any questions or comments to Contact .

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