Billions (short Scale) to Millions (B to M)
1 billion (short scale) equals 1,000 millions exactly.
How to convert billions (short scale) to millions
To convert billions (short scale) to millions, multiply the number of billions (short scale) by 1,000. This factor is exact. To go the other way, multiply millions by 0.001.
millions = billions (short scale) × 1,000
Example: 10 billions (short scale) = 10,000 millions.
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
Million (M)
One million (10⁶).
Million comes from Italian. Old Italian milione was built from mille, a thousand, plus an augmentative ending, so it began as something like a big thousand. The name proved useful as a stem: by 1475 the French mathematician Jehan Adam was already building larger names from it, bymillion and trimillion, for 10¹² and 10¹⁸. The short and long scales agree on the million itself, 1,000,000 or 10⁶, and diverge only for the larger names. The SI prefix mega- stands for 10⁶.
Millions are hard to feel. Counting out a million items one by one is famously laborious, yet a million seconds lasts only about 11.57 days. A billion seconds, by contrast, is roughly 31.7 years.
1 million = 1,000,000 pieces (exactly).
Sources: Wikipedia: Million; Wikipedia: Names of large numbers; BIPM SI Brochure, 9th edition (2019)
Related conversions
- Millions to billions (short scale) (reverse)
- Billions (short scale) to pieces
- Billions (short scale) to dozens
- Billions (short scale) to lakhs
- 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 millions
- Dozens to millions
- Lakhs to millions
- Crores to millions
- Pairs to millions
- Hundred to millions
- Gross to millions
- Thousand to millions
- Trillions (short scale) to millions
- Score to millions
- Half dozens to millions
- Quadrillions to millions
See all counting & quantity units.