The Earth takes approximately 365.25 days to complete one full orbit around the Sun. This period is known as a sidereal year and is about 365.256 days long
. More precisely, the mean solar year (the basis for our calendar year) is about 365.2422 days, which is why we have leap years to adjust for the extra fraction of a day
. During this orbit, Earth travels roughly 940 million kilometers (about 584 million miles) at an average speed of about 108,000 km/h (67,000 mph)
. The orbit is elliptical but nearly circular, with the Earth-Sun distance averaging about 150 million kilometers (93 million miles)
. In summary, it takes Earth about one year—365.25 days—to orbit the Sun once, which defines the length of a year on our planet.
