World Lines Of Latitude — free printable diagram

The important lines of latitude

Latitude measures how far north or south of the equator a place is, in degrees. Five lines of latitude are named and appear on almost every world map: the equator, the two tropics and the two polar circles. They run east to west, parallel to one another, and their positions are set by the tilt of the Earth's axis rather than chosen arbitrarily.

Equator

0° — halfway between the poles

Tropic of Cancer

23.5° north

Tropic of Capricorn

23.5° south

Arctic Circle

66.5° north

Antarctic Circle

66.5° south

North and South Poles

90° north and 90° south

Direction they run

East–west, parallel to the equator

• Lines of latitude are also called parallels. They never meet, and they get shorter the closer they are to a pole — the equator is the longest and a pole is a single point.
• Latitude and longitude are easily confused. Latitude runs east–west and measures north or south of the equator; longitude runs pole to pole and measures east or west of the Prime Meridian. Latitude lines are the flat ones on a world map.
• The tropics mark the furthest north and south that the sun is ever directly overhead. Between them the sun passes overhead twice a year, which is why that band is the hottest.
• Inside the Arctic and Antarctic Circles there is at least one day a year of 24-hour daylight and one of 24-hour darkness.
• Both figures come from the same cause: the Earth's axis is tilted about 23.5° from vertical. That tilt fixes the tropics at 23.5° and the polar circles at 90° minus 23.5°, which is 66.5°.
• A latitude is always written with N or S — 40°N and 40°S are different places on opposite sides of the equator.