How long is the Mississippi River? Length with the Missouri
The Mississippi on its own is about 2,340 miles (3,770 km) long. With the Missouri it forms a river system of about 3,710 miles (5,971 km), the fourth longest in the world and the longest in North America.
Lay the Mississippi over your country
The river and a country at one scale. Pick a country, drag the river or switch the globe to the Mercator map.
Mississippi-Missouri: about 5,971 km (3,710 miles), about 1.5 times the straight-line distance from New York to Los Angeles (about 3,940 km).
Drag the river with your finger or mouse. It moves over the globe without changing shape or length, and its north stays up. The globe keeps the true proportions; on the Mercator map you can see how a river moved north grows.
Where the Mississippi flows
The Mississippi flows out of Lake Itasca in Minnesota and runs south to the Gulf of Mexico. Its longest tributary, the Missouri, rises in the Rocky Mountains of Montana. Measured from the Missouri's headwaters, the whole system is about 5,971 km long.
The Mississippi basin covers about 3.2 million km², all or part of 31 US states and two Canadian provinces. At its mouth the river carries about 19,000 m³/s of water on average.
Rivers of similar length, straightened
Rivers drawn at one scale. Straighten them to compare their lengths and see how they look on a Mercator map.
- Yangtze: about 6,300 km
- Mississippi-Missouri: about 5,971 km
- Yenisei: about 5,540 km
On a Mercator map: about 8,000 km
On a Mercator map the Mississippi looks about 8,000 km long (×1.34 its true length). Its course lies at middle latitudes, so the map stretches it by about 34%.
Open the Mercator mapHow long is it really?
The Mississippi alone is about 3,770 km long, and about 5,971 km together with the Missouri. US agencies give between 2,300 and 2,350 miles for the Mississippi alone, because the channel shifts and measurement methods differ.
The line on this page's maps is about 5,228 km long, shorter than the sources say, because a 1:10 million map smooths the bends and the mouth. That is why lengths here come from the sources, not from the drawing.
Mississippi-Missouri: questions and answers
The Mississippi alone is about 2,340 miles (3,770 km) long according to the USGS. With the Missouri, measured from its headwaters in the Rocky Mountains, the system is about 3,710 miles (5,971 km).
The Missouri, at about 2,540 miles (4,090 km) according to the USGS, is slightly longer than the Mississippi (about 2,340 miles). Together they form the longest river system in North America.
The Mississippi flows out of Lake Itasca in Minnesota. The most distant sources of the whole system lie on the upper Missouri in the Rocky Mountains of Montana.
The Mississippi enters the Gulf of Mexico through its delta south of New Orleans.
About 3,710 miles (5,971 km), measured from the headwaters of the Missouri. That makes it the fourth longest river system in the world.