Random location generator

Where uniform points land

Half of all uniform points land within 30° of the equator, because that band holds half the sphere's area. Only about 13% land poleward of 60°.

How to use it

1. Press Generate for 20 random points anywhere on Earth.
2. Press Land only to switch to points on land, then press Generate again. The button stays highlighted while it is on.
3. The points appear as pins. The first point's coordinates are printed under the buttons.
4. Press Generate again for a fresh set. Each set is independent of the last.

Why latitude uses an arcsine

Picking latitude uniformly between −90 and 90 puts too many points near the poles, because each degree of latitude near a pole covers a thin ring of little area. The tool instead draws a uniform number u between 0 and 1 and sets latitude = asin(2u − 1). Longitude is uniform from −180 to 180. The result is uniform over the surface.

On the web map, which uses Mercator, the points still look sparse near the equator and crowded at high latitudes. That is the projection stretching high latitudes, not the sampling.

Land-only points

With Land only on, the tool draws candidate points the same way and keeps those that fall inside a Natural Earth 1:50m country outline, until it has 20 or has tried 4,000 candidates. Antarctica counts as land. Very small islands can be missing at that scale.

For random US towns with a population filter and a shareable link, use the random US town generator.

Uses

Uniform random points are a standard way to sample for geography quizzes, map-reading practice, and spot checks of a dataset. The first point's coordinates are printed under the map. Paste them into the reverse geocoder to see what is there.

Ideas for using random points

Geography teachers use random points for quiz rounds: generate a set, then ask which country or ocean each falls in. Map makers use them to test labels and projections. For a fair sample of a map, keep every point, including those at sea, and only switch on Land only when water points are not wanted.