A system for registering electromagnetic navigation data to a 3D model of a luminal network, the system comprising: a location sensor capable of being navigated within a luminal network inside a patient's body; an electromagnetic field generator configured to detect the location of the location sensor as it is navigated within the luminal network; a computing device including a processor and a memory; and an application, stored in the memory and executed by the processor, which when executed, causes the computing device to: access a 3D model of the luminal network based on computed tomographic (CT) images of the luminal network, the 3D model corresponding to a CT coordinate space; select a plurality of reference points within the 3D model of the luminal network; access a plurality of survey points within the luminal network, the plurality of survey points corresponding to a body coordinate space and being based on locations of the location sensor while the location sensor is navigated within the luminal network; correlate the plurality of survey points with the plurality of reference points to determine pairs of correlated reference points and survey points; and derive a transformation that maps the body coordinate space to the CT coordinate space based on the pairs of correlated reference points and survey points; characterized in that correlating the plurality of survey points with the plurality of reference points is based on an inverse registration of the CT coordinate space to the body coordinate space. a location sensor capable of being navigated within a luminal network inside a patient's body; an electromagnetic field generator configured to detect the location of the location sensor as it is navigated within the luminal network; a computing device including a processor and a memory; and an application, stored in the memory and executed by the processor, which when executed, causes the computing device to: access a 3D model of the luminal network based on computed tomographic (CT) images of the luminal network, the 3D model corresponding to a CT coordinate space; select a plurality of reference points within the 3D model of the luminal network; access a plurality of survey points within the luminal network, the plurality of survey points corresponding to a body coordinate space and being based on locations of the location sensor while the location sensor is navigated within the luminal network; correlate the plurality of survey points with the plurality of reference points to determine pairs of correlated reference points and survey points; and derive a transformation that maps the body coordinate space to the CT coordinate space based on the pairs of correlated reference points and survey points; characterized in that correlating the plurality of survey points with the plurality of reference points is based on an inverse registration of the CT coordinate space to the body coordinate space. access a 3D model of the luminal network based on computed tomographic (CT) images of the luminal network, the 3D model corresponding to a CT coordinate space; select a plurality of reference points within the 3D model of the luminal network; access a plurality of survey points within the luminal network, the plurality of survey points corresponding to a body coordinate space and being based on locations of the location sensor while the location sensor is navigated within the luminal network; correlate the plurality of survey points with the plurality of reference points to determine pairs of correlated reference points and survey points; and derive a transformation that maps the body coordinate space to the CT coordinate space based on the pairs of correlated reference points and survey points; characterized in that correlating the plurality of survey points with the plurality of reference points is based on an inverse registration of the CT coordinate space to the body coordinate space. <EOS>