A position detector having a magnetic sensor for measuring linear or angular displacement, or detecting a position of a body without contact thereto. The detector has a closed circuit including magnets and yokes. The magnetic leakage flux which emanates from the inside surfaces of the yokes is utilized to detect the position of the body. The magnetic sensor is transferred along the inside surfaces of the yokes by a transferring circuit, which senses the magnetic field intensity of the leakage flux distributed thereon. This enables the detector to have a longer measuring range than that of a prior art detectors. An output signal is stable due to the shielding effect of the yokes. The magnetic closed circuit has many magnetic and mechanical configurations. For example, for the magnet, a permanent magnet and an electromagnet can be used. Further, improvements are proposed for enhancing the linearity of the output signal voltage with respect to the transferring distance of the sensing element and for compensating the offset drift of an amplifier or changing the coercive force of permanent magnets.