Convert length and distance units — meters, feet, inches, kilometers, miles, light years and more.
| Unit | Name | Value |
|---|---|---|
| 0.001 chain | 2.01168e-05 km | |
| 0.01 chain | 0.000201168 km | |
| 0.1 chain | 0.00201168 km | |
| 1 chain | 0.0201168 km | |
| 5 chain | 0.100584 km | |
| 10 chain | 0.201168 km | |
| 50 chain | 1.00584 km | |
| 100 chain | 2.01168 km | |
| 1000 chain | 20.1168 km |
Multiply the number of Chains by 0.0201168 to get Kilometers. Formula: km = chain × 0.0201168. Example: 10 chain × 0.0201168 = 0.201168 km. To reverse, divide Kilometers by 0.0201168 to get Chains.
| Chain (chain) | Kilometer (km) |
|---|---|
| 0.001 chain | 2.01168e-05 km |
| 0.01 chain | 0.000201168 km |
| 0.1 chain | 0.00201168 km |
| 0.5 chain | 0.0100584 km |
| 1 chain | 0.0201168 km |
| 2 chain | 0.0402336 km |
| 5 chain | 0.100584 km |
| 10 chain | 0.201168 km |
| 20 chain | 0.402336 km |
| 50 chain | 1.00584 km |
| 100 chain | 2.01168 km |
| 250 chain | 5.0292 km |
| 500 chain | 10.0584 km |
| 1000 chain | 20.1168 km |
| 10000 chain | 201.168 km |
To convert Chain to Kilometer, multiply by 0.0201168. Example: 10 chain = 0.201168 km
To convert Kilometer back to Chain, divide by 0.0201168 (multiply by 49.7097). Use the swap button above.
Start with 100 Chains = 2.01168 km as your reference point. Scale up or down from there.
Australia, Canada, New Zealand, and South Africa are converting historic chain-based property records to metric. Surveyors and land registrars convert chains to kilometers for national cadastral database modernisation projects.
British railways still use miles and chains officially, but EU interoperability requirements led to widespread chain-to-kilometer conversion projects for ETCS signalling systems and international high-speed rail connections.
Many African nations inherited chain-based land survey systems from British colonial administration. Modern land reform and cadastral modernisation projects require systematic chain-to-kilometer conversion of historic records.
Highway engineers in metric countries working with historic road survey records from the British era convert chains to kilometers when updating road geometry databases and pavement management systems.
Geographic information system specialists migrating legacy land parcel databases from imperial to metric coordinate systems convert chain-based boundary dimensions to kilometers for integration with modern spatial data standards.
Agricultural economists and land use researchers studying historic land tenure patterns in Commonwealth countries convert chain-based field measurements to kilometers for statistical analysis and mapping in modern GIS software.
The Chain is a unit of Length measurement (symbol: chain). 1 chain = 0.0201168 km. Used in scientific and practical Length measurement applications.
The Kilometer is a unit of Length measurement (symbol: km). It is part of an internationally recognised measurement system used alongside the Chain.
Edmund Gunter invented the surveyor's chain in 1620. His design — 100 links totalling exactly 66 feet — was brilliantly chosen: 10 chains × 10 chains = 1 acre, making area calculation trivially simple in the field. 80 chains = 1 mile, 10 chains = 1 furlong. The chain became standard across the British Empire and is written into American law — the US Public Land Survey System still divides land using chains and links.
The kilometre was introduced in 1795 as part of the French metric system — exactly 1,000 metres. France was the first country to adopt a universal decimal measurement system, replacing a chaotic patchwork of regional units. The metre itself was defined as one ten-millionth of the distance from the North Pole to the equator through Paris. By the 20th century, the kilometre had become the world's standard unit for road distances, replacing miles in country after country. The US remains the only major exception, still officially using miles for road distances.
Common use: Chain to Kilometer conversion is needed when working with international standards, scientific publications, or reference materials that use different unit systems for Length measurement.