Scandinavian mile

A Scandinavian mile (Norwegian and Swedish: mil, [miːl], Finnish: peninkulma) is a unit of length common in Norway and Sweden, to a lesser extent in Finland, but not Denmark.

However, in situations where confusion may arise it is more common for Scandinavians to describe distances in terms of the official SI unit kilometre.

This became apparent with the Swedish-Norwegian union in 1814, were the different definitions of foot in made the unity mile 11,295 m (37,057 ft) in Norway.

The metric system was introduced in Norway in 1875 and Sweden in 1889, after a decision by the parliament in 1876 and a ten-year transition period from 1879.

However, it is very common in colloquial speech, including 5 km, which is referred to in Swedish as "half a mil" (en halvmil).

In Turkey there is a "light farsang" defined as 5 kilometres (3.1 mi), similar to the Scandinavian forest mile.