How often does Halley’s Comet return on average?

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Edmond Halley Edmond Halley, detail of an oil painting by Richard Phillips, c. 1720; in the National Portrait Gallery, London.

Halley’s Comet returns to the inner solar system every 76 years on average.1

While this is the average interval, the gravitational influence of the planets on the comet’s orbit causes the actual period to vary, ranging from 74.5 to slightly more than 79 years. The comet, named after the British scientist Edmond Halley, was identified by him as a periodic object after he observed that sightings in 1531, 1607, and 1682 shared similar orbital characteristics.1