City distance and radius calculator
Straight-line distance between any two covered metros, plus a radius search that lists every metro inside a chosen mileage with its combined sales tax rate. Runs entirely in your browser.
Quick answer
Distances here are great-circle (haversine) measurements between place centroids — the true straight-line figure. Road distance is estimated at 1.2× the straight line, the standard North American circuity factor, with drive time at 62 mph on long highway trips.
Distance between two metros
Straight-line distance is exact (haversine, WGS 84 centroids). Road distance and drive time are estimates using a 1.2 circuity factor and typical highway speeds — not a routed itinerary.
Metros within a radius
3 covered metros and 25 ZIP codes fall within 100 miles of Los Angeles.
| Metro | Miles | Direction | Combined rate |
|---|---|---|---|
| Long Beach, CA | 14.4 | south | 10.250% |
| Anaheim, CA | 19.1 | southeast | 7.750% |
| Riverside, CA | 50.3 | east | 8.750% |
Questions
Straight-line is exact; road figures are modelled estimates.
- How is the distance between two cities calculated?
- With the haversine formula on incorporated-place centroids: a great-circle distance across a sphere of mean radius 3,958.76 miles. That is the true straight-line distance, not the road distance.
- Why is the driving distance longer than the straight-line distance?
- Roads bend around terrain, water and property lines. US intercity road distance averages about 1.2 times the great-circle distance, which is the circuity factor this tool applies to estimate road miles and drive time.
- Can I find every city within 50 miles of a location?
- Yes — the radius search lists every covered metro inside 25, 50, 100 or 250 miles of a chosen centre, sorted nearest first, with each one's combined sales tax rate alongside.
- Does distance affect which sales tax rate I pay?
- Usually not. Most states are destination-sourced, so the rate follows the delivery address rather than the store's location. Driving to a lower-rate metro only helps when you take possession there and the state sources the sale at origin.
Sources & transparency
- US Census Bureau Gazetteer & ZCTA files — coordinates used for distance and nearby-city math
Last reviewed August 2026. Figures are published for reference and can change; verify with the source agency before filing or contracting. How we build and check this data.