The Great Barrier Reef is about 2,300 kilometers long.

Main measurement

Most scientific and reef management sources describe the Great Barrier Reef as stretching for “over 2,300 kilometres” along the northeastern coast of Australia, from the tip of Cape York Peninsula down to near Bundaberg in Queensland. This distance is sometimes rounded in miles as roughly 1,250–1,400 miles, depending on whether the figure used is about 2,000 or 2,300 kilometers.

Why numbers vary

Different organizations may quote slightly different lengths (around 2,000 to 2,300 km) because they use different ways of measuring the complex chain of reefs and islands that make up the system. Despite these small differences, all major references agree that the Great Barrier Reef is by far the longest continuous coral reef system on Earth.