how long is a furlong

June 27, 2026

A furlong is 660 feet long, which is 220 yards or about 201 meters, and it equals one-eighth of a mile.

Quick Scoop: How long is a furlong?

1 furlong = 660 feet.

Also equal to 220 yards.

In metric, it’s about 201.168 meters.

There are 8 furlongs in 1 mile.

Mini explainer

The furlong is an old English unit that originally came from farm fields and ploughing distances, but today you’ll mostly see it in horse racing distances (like “a six-furlong sprint”). Because 8 furlongs make a mile, race descriptions can switch between furlongs and miles without changing the actual distance.

A simple way to picture it: if you walk about 200 meters on a track, that’s roughly one furlong. If you stacked 8 of those back to back, you’d have about a mile.

Quick reference table (HTML)

html

<table>
  <thead>
    <tr>
      <th>Unit</th>
      <th>Equals</th>
    </tr>
  </thead>
  <tbody>
    <tr>
      <td>1 furlong</td>
      <td>660 feet</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>1 furlong</td>
      <td>220 yards</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>1 furlong</td>
      <td>≈ 201.168 meters</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td>1 mile</td>
      <td>8 furlongs</td>
    </tr>
  </tbody>
</table>

TL;DR: A furlong is 660 feet long, or one-eighth of a mile, mainly used today in horse racing.

Information gathered from public forums or data available on the internet and portrayed here.