Distance for point to point

[MalloryBarrow]

We have two layers on our map; one is "mines" and the other is "population", both are points.  We are trying to get the population's distance to the closest mine in meters.  We tried euclidean distance, near and point to point distance and have come up with either extremely large or extremely small numbers. Any ideas on how to get this to work?  It appears that the distances are giving us the literal correct distance for what is on our screen, but not for the state of IL... Maybe a scale issue?

Thank you.

[IanMurray]

what projection and units of your dataframe?

[MalloryBarrow]

The projection is GCS nad 1983 16n in meters

[DanPatterson_Retired]

I would suggesting projecting the GCS file to the UTM zone so that it matches the data frame projection, rather than relying on projections on the fly.  It is generally a good practice to use projected data when doing analysis that involves distance and/or area.  To accomplish this, use the Project tool NOT the Define Projection Tool... the former will produce a new file with the projected coordinates

[MalloryBarrow]

Thank you! I will try that.