Which countries use miles instead of kilometers?

Does the UK use miles or km?

Okay, so like, the UK? They’re all messed up with miles and kilometers.

It’s weird. You know, miles are still the big thing for roads. You see it on signs, and speed limits are always in miles per hour.

But, uh, kilometers are, like, sneaking in, right? Official papers and stuff sometimes uses kilometers.

Oh, and I think longer distances are measured in kilometers too, I think so. Like, my uncle told me that he once saw a sign in Kilometers.

• Miles: Roads, speed
• Kilometers: Official docs, longer distances, my uncle says so
• It is a very gradual change

It’s kinda a slow switch, I reckon. It’s this whole mix and match thing, you know? It’s like they can’t decide. I think. The whole thing is confusing if you ask me, and like, it’s going to continue that way.

Why do Americans not use km?

Dark outside. Streetlights hazy. Thinking about miles… kilometers… Just… why? It’s the cost. Always the cost. Retooling factories. Back in the 1800s, everything booming. Imagine changing everything then. Impossible. So much money already poured in.

Heavy machinery. All calibrated. Imperial. Changing blueprints. Training workers. Just… no. Too much.

Think about my grandfather. Machinist. Ford plant. Detroit. His hands, calloused. Greasy. Working on those engines. Precision. Inches. Not… millimeters.

• Cost of retooling: Factories invested heavily in machinery.
• Worker retraining: A massive undertaking.
• Inertia: Things just… kept going. The way they were.

Lost in thought. Sigh. The metric system… Makes sense. But… America. Stubborn. Stuck in its ways. Like me, sometimes. Just… stuck. 2024. Still using miles. It’s… a lot.

How many countries use the miles system?

Miles. The whisper of distance, a sun-baked road stretching endlessly. Three. Three countries cling to this ancient measure, a defiant echo in the metric tide. The United States. Vast, sprawling, a land measured in the heartbeats of journeys. Liberia. A hidden rhythm, a pulse in West Africa. And Myanmar. A land of shimmering pagodas, where miles hold a mystical weight. It’s a stubborn refusal, this adherence. A stubborn, beautiful resistance.

The UK. A hesitant dance between systems. Roads still measured in the familiar miles, but the rest? Swept away by the clean lines of meters and kilometers. The relentless march of progress, you see. Progress. A word that holds both beauty and brutality. It leaves behind ghosts. Ghosts of systems past. Ghosts of miles.

The enduring allure of miles. A feeling, not just a measurement. Miles hold history, stories of pioneers, of endless routes across plains and mountains. This sense of freedom. This sense of the open road. The space of miles. The time in miles. A profound attachment. Beyond mere numbers. A personal connection for me, having driven across America. This understanding. That miles are more than miles. They are the stories, they are the journey. They are the past, present, and future. They are everything.

Does Europe use km or miles?

Dark outside. Streetlights blurry. Km. They use kilometers. In Europe.

Thinking about that road trip. Summer 2022. Germany. Autobahn. Speed limit signs. All kilometers. Remember that wrong turn outside of Munich. Ended up in some tiny village. Cobblestone streets. Felt lost.

• Kilometers are standard in Europe.
• Except the UK and Ireland.
• My rental car had both. Tiny little numbers. Hard to read.

Driving at night. Different feeling. Everything quieter. Except for the hum of the tires. Thinking about those winding roads in the Black Forest. Heavy rain. Visibility was terrible. GPS kept losing signal.

• British influence is why the UK uses miles.
• Ireland too. Drove there as well. Same steering wheel, different speed limits. Confusing.

Remember buying gas. Euros per liter. Not dollars per gallon. Everything metric. Took some getting used to. So different.

• Metric system widespread across the continent. Makes sense. Except for those two islands. Always the outliers.

Wish I was back there. Driving. Lost in thought. Just the road and me. Maybe someday. Soon.

Does Japan use km or miles?

Japan uses kilometers. Kilometers are everywhere. Road signs. Maps. Speedometers. It’s metric, like most of the world. Oddly, I once saw a really old map in a Kyoto bookstore using ri, a traditional Japanese unit of distance. Wonder how long that map had been around.

• Kilometers are standard: Think km/h not mph.
• Metric system rules: Japan is fully metric, grams, liters, the whole nine yards. My grandma still uses ounces, bless her heart.
• Exception: Golf courses apparently sometimes use yards. Makes no sense to me.
• Ri is ancient: One ri equals about 3.9 kilometers. Imagine navigating with that. I get lost with Google Maps.

Remembering that bookstore in Kyoto… it was down a narrow side street, smelled of old paper. Fascinating. They even had scrolls. Completely different from the shiny, modern Tokyo I’d experienced. It’s like stepping back in time. Japan embraces both so well.

Which countries use mph or kph?

Okay, so speed… mph vs km/h, right? Hmm, feels like a test.

• The UK, yeah, and the USA… those are mph countries. Odd ones out, huh?

• Everyone else uses kph. Seems simple enough.

Wait, my cousin’s car in France… definitely kph. Speedometers and signs, yeah, make sense. All in kph there.

I once saw a video. Someone was talking about mph. It was from a YouTube short, so I do not know if it was true.

Is there some sneaky exception? Nope! Every nation that isn’t the United States or the UK uses KPH.

My family uses KPH; but my dad wants to use MPH.

I’m visiting London next year. Need to remember mph!

Driving on the opposite side of the road is a problem.

How does Germany measure distance?

Metric system. Kilometers for long distances, meters for shorter ones. Simple. Germany follows international standards. Precise. No different than most of the world. My trip to Berlin last year? All kilometers on the Autobahn. Speed limits too. Remember that.

• Kilometers (km): Standard unit for road distances, signage, navigation.
• Meters (m): Everyday use, measuring objects, shorter distances.
• Centimeters (cm), Millimeters (mm): Even smaller measurements. Precision work, engineering.

Think GPS. Think maps. Think any modern tech. It’s all metric. Even my Bosch rangefinder uses metric. Essential for DIY projects in my Hamburg apartment. Standard. Universal.