Evenly spread, not just random
There is a trap in generating random places on a sphere. If you pick a latitude uniformly between -90 and 90, you get far too many points near the poles, because a degree of latitude up there wraps around a tiny circle while the same degree at the equator spans a huge one. A band one degree tall near the equator holds about 115 times more surface area than the band touching the pole, so naive generators quietly fill the Arctic with points.
This tool avoids that by drawing a uniform random number u and passing it through an arcsine, which exactly compensates for the shrinking circles. The result is uniform by area: every square kilometre of the planet, from the Pacific to Peterborough, has the same chance of being picked. Longitude needs no correction, since every line of longitude is the same length.
Worked examples of the correction
Expect a lot of ocean
About 71% of the Earth's surface is water, so a fair generator will put roughly seven of every ten points in the sea, and a good share of the rest in deserts, tundra and forest, because that is what the planet is mostly made of. A land-only mode sounds like an easy fix, but doing it properly means shipping a coastline dataset several megabytes in size and testing every point against it, and doing it cheaply (say, a rough rectangle around each continent) would silently distort the distribution. We would rather give you honestly uniform points; generate a few extra and keep the ones you need.
What random coordinates are good for
- Testing software: map widgets, geocoding, distance calculations and location-based features all need coordinate test data.
- Geography games: guess the country from the map link, or challenge friends to identify the nearest town.
- Sampling: environmental and statistical work often needs unbiased points over an area.
- Curiosity: clicking a map link and finding yourself over an unnamed seamount in the South Pacific is its own reward.
Every point is generated on your device using the browser's cryptographic random number generator, so the draw is unpredictable and nothing is sent to any server. Set the decimal places to match the precision you need: 2 places pins a point to roughly a kilometre, while 6 places is about a tenth of a metre, which is more precision than consumer GPS can honestly claim. If a distance calculation is next on your list, the miles to km converter is one tap away, and the random number generator covers plain numeric draws.
Frequently asked questions
Why do most points land in the sea?
Because most of the planet is sea. Roughly 71% of the Earth's surface is ocean, so a fair generator will put roughly 7 in every 10 points in water. If your points mostly show blue on the map, that is the generator being honest, not broken.
Why not just pick a random latitude between -90 and 90?
Because lines of latitude get shorter towards the poles. Picking latitude uniformly would crowd points into the polar regions, where each degree of latitude covers far less area. This tool applies an arcsine correction so every square kilometre of the globe is equally likely, which is what people almost always actually want.
Can I get land-only coordinates?
Not here, honestly. Deciding whether a point is on land needs a detailed coastline dataset several megabytes in size, and a crude approximation would quietly bias the results. Generate a few extra points instead and keep the ones that suit you.
What do the map links show?
Each link opens OpenStreetMap centred on the exact point, with a marker, at a zoom level that shows the surrounding region. Nothing about your click is sent from this page; you are simply visiting the map site with the coordinates in the address.
How random are the points?
Each coordinate is built from your browser's cryptographic random number generator (crypto.getRandomValues), the same source used for encryption keys. The draw happens on your device and cannot be predicted or influenced by anyone, including us.