Coordinates
What Is Latitude?
Latitude is the angular distance north or south of the equator. It ranges from 90° S at the South Pole to 90° N at the North Pole, with 0° on the equator. On CoordMap and in GPS, latitude is listed first in a WGS84 pair.
How latitude is measured
A latitude value is an angle at Earth’s center between the equator and a point on the surface. Lines of equal latitude are called parallels because they never meet. One degree of latitude is about 111 km, with only small variation because Earth is slightly flattened at the poles.
Why latitude changes climate and daylight
The Sun’s path in the sky depends strongly on latitude. Near the equator, day length stays close to 12 hours all year. At 51° N (London) winter days are much shorter. Polar latitudes can see midnight sun or polar night. CoordMap’s Sun & Moon tool uses the same WGS84 latitude you see on city pages.
Latitude vs a street address
A city page lists an approximate center latitude, not every address in that city. Two buildings in the same city can differ by several thousandths of a degree. Use the latitude/longitude finder when you need a specific entrance, trailhead or survey point.
Examples
0°51.5074° N33.8688° SCommon questions
Is latitude written before longitude?
On CoordMap, yes: decimal pairs are latitude, longitude in WGS84. Some GIS files reverse that order, so always check the column headers.
Can latitude be greater than 90?
No. Valid geographic latitude is −90 to +90. A number outside that range is not a WGS84 latitude.