Billions (short Scale) to Lakhs (B to lakh)
1 billion (short scale) equals 10,000 lakhs exactly.
How to convert billions (short scale) to lakhs
To convert billions (short scale) to lakhs, multiply the number of billions (short scale) by 10,000. This factor is exact. To go the other way, multiply lakhs by 0.0001.
lakhs = billions (short scale) × 10,000
Example: 10 billions (short scale) = 100,000 lakhs.
Large-number names differ around the world: this site uses the short scale (billion = 10⁹) by default, and lists the long-scale billion separately.
About these units
Billion (short Scale) (B)
One thousand million (10⁹). The meaning used in the US, UK and most English-speaking countries today.
For decades British and American speakers meant different things by billion. The short-scale sense, a thousand million, took hold in the United States in the 19th century, while Britain kept the older meaning of a million million. From the 1950s the short scale spread through British technical writing and journalism, and Winston Churchill had remarked in 1941 that for practical financial purposes a billion was a thousand millions.
The official break came on December 20, 1974. Asked in Parliament whether ministers would be required to use the traditional British meaning, Prime Minister Harold Wilson answered no, explaining that billion was now used internationally for 1,000 million and that using it any other way would cause confusion. He conceded it could still be read as a million million and asked colleagues to avoid ambiguity. Today a billion is 10⁹, matching the SI prefix giga, and the UN projected that world population would reach 8 billion on November 15, 2022.
1 billion (short scale) = 1,000,000,000 pieces (exactly).
Sources: Hansard, 20 Dec 1974: Billion (Definition), written answer; Wikipedia: Billion; United Nations: Day of Eight Billion
Lakh (lakh)
One hundred thousand (10⁵). The standard unit in the Indian numbering system, written 1,00,000.
Gambling stakes may have named the lakh. The Sanskrit word lakṣa originally meant a mark, a target or a stake in gambling, and in the Classical Sanskrit of the Gupta era it became the numeral for 100,000. English borrowed it from South Asia, and other languages did too: in Malay and Indonesian, laksa means 10,000 instead. The Indian numbering system gives a name to nearly every second power of ten, which is why a hundred thousand gets its own word rather than being called ten myriads or a hundred thousands.
A lakh is 100,000, written 1,00,000 under Indian digit grouping: the first three digits from the right form one group and every later group has two digits. It is the everyday system in India, Pakistan and Bangladesh, where it is preferred over the international one. Rupee amounts are stated in lakhs, so 150,000 rupees is 1.5 lakh. Indian English also uses lakhs of as a loose phrase for very many, and formal publications usually give foreign currencies in the international system and rupees in lakhs and crores.
1 lakh = 100,000 pieces (exactly).
Sources: Wikipedia: Lakh; Wikipedia: Indian numbering system
Related conversions
- Lakhs to billions (short scale) (reverse)
- Billions (short scale) to pieces
- Billions (short scale) to dozens
- Billions (short scale) to millions
- Billions (short scale) to crores
- Billions (short scale) to pairs
- Billions (short scale) to hundred
- Billions (short scale) to gross
- Billions (short scale) to thousand
- Billions (short scale) to trillions (short scale)
- Billions (short scale) to score
- Billions (short scale) to half dozens
- Billions (short scale) to quadrillions
- Pieces to lakhs
- Dozens to lakhs
- Millions to lakhs
- Crores to lakhs
- Pairs to lakhs
- Hundred to lakhs
- Gross to lakhs
- Thousand to lakhs
- Trillions (short scale) to lakhs
- Score to lakhs
- Half dozens to lakhs
- Quadrillions to lakhs
See all counting & quantity units.