What is the official height of Mount Everest above sea level?

Mount Everest’s official height is 8,848.86 metres above sea level.

Nepal and China announced this jointly measured figure in December 2020. It includes the mountain’s snow and ice cap, whose thickness can change over time. Earlier widely used measurements gave slightly different results, including 8,848 metres and 8,850 metres, because surveying methods, reference systems, and the summit snow layer differed.

Everest is part of the Mahalangur Himal sub-range of the Himalayas, on the border between Nepal and Tibet in China. Nepalese authorities call it Sagarmatha, while Tibetans call it Chomolungma. The first confirmed ascent was made in 1953 by New Zealander Edmund Hillary and Nepalese Sherpa Tenzing Norgay. Everest is the highest mountain above sea level, although Mauna Kea in Hawaii is taller when measured from its underwater base to its summit.