How many zeros are in a million?
A million has 6 zeros: 1,000,000. That means one million is a thousand thousands, or 10 to the power of 6 in scientific notation.
Counting zeros is an easy way to compare big numbers. A thousand has 3 zeros, a million 6, a billion 9 and a trillion 12. Each step adds three zeros because each is a thousand times larger than the one before.
Scientists often write big numbers in scientific notation to avoid long strings of zeros. One million is 1 × 10⁶, and 3.5 million is 3.5 × 10⁶.
Millions every day
The human eye can distinguish millions of colors, and a typical smartphone camera has tens of millions of pixels. A city like Paris has about 2 million people in the city proper, and about 12 million in the wider metropolitan area.
The word million first described a thousand thousands in medieval Italy, where growing trade made big numbers useful. Before that, people often said a thousand thousand when they needed such large amounts.
Did You Know?
A millionaire is someone whose wealth is at least one million units of money. The word first appeared in English in the early 1800s.