Acre

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This article is about the unit of area measure. For other uses, see Acre
(disambiguation). For the surname, see Acres (surname).
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acre

Comparison of some Imperial and metric units of area

General information

Unit system US customary units, Imperial units

Unit of Area

Symbol acre or ac 

Conversions

1 acre in ... ... is equal to ...

   SI units    ≈ 4,046.9 m2

   US customary, Imperial    ≡ 4,840 sq yd

 ≡ 1⁄640 sq mi

The acre is a unit of land area used in the imperial and US customary systems. It is

traditionally defined as the area of one chain by one furlong (66 by 660 feet), which
is exactly equal to 10 square chains, 1⁄640 of a square mile, or 43,560 square feet, and
approximately 4,047 m2, or about 40% of a hectare. Based upon the International
yard and pound agreement of 1959, an acre may be declared as
exactly 4,046.8564224 square metres. One recognised symbol for the acre is ac,
[1]
 but the word "acre" is also used as the symbol.[2]
The acre is a statute measure in the United States, in the United Kingdom and in
almost all countries of the former British Empire: in most it is lawful to "use for trade"
if given as supplementary information and is not used for land registration.
In the United States both the international acre and the US survey acre are in use,
but they differ by only two parts per million, see below. The most common use of the
acre is to measure tracts of land.
Traditionally, in the Middle Ages, an acre was defined as the area of land that could
be ploughed in one day by a yoke of oxen.[3]

Contents

 1Description
 2US survey acres
o 2.1Spanish acre
 3Use
o 3.1South Asia
o 3.2United Kingdom
 4Equivalence to other units of area
 5Historical origin
 6Legacy acres
 7See also
 8Notes
 9References
 10External links

Description[edit]
One acre equals 1⁄640 (0.0015625) square mile, 4,840 square yards, 43,560 square
feet,[2] or about 4,047 square metres (0.4047 hectares) (see below). While all modern
variants of the acre contain 4,840 square yards, there are alternative definitions of a
yard, so the exact size of an acre depends upon the particular yard on which it is
based. Originally, an acre was understood as a selion of land sized at
forty perches (660 ft, or 1 furlong) long and four perches (66 ft) wide;[4] this may have
also been understood as an approximation of the amount of land a yoke of oxen
could plough in one day (a furlong being "a furrow long"). A square enclosing one
acre is approximately 69.57 yards, or 208 feet 9 inches (63.61 metres), on a side. As
a unit of measure, an acre has no prescribed shape; any area of 43,560 square feet
is an acre.
US survey acres[edit]
In the international yard and pound agreement of 1959, the United States and five
countries of the Commonwealth of Nations defined the international yard to be
exactly 0.9144 metre.[5] The US authorities decided that, while the refined definition
would apply nationally in all other respects, the US survey foot (and thus the survey
acre) would continue 'until such a time as it becomes desirable and expedient to
readjust [it]'.[5] By inference, an "international acre" may be calculated as
exactly 4,046.8564224 square metres but it does not have a basis in any
international agreement.
Both the international acre and the US survey acre contain 1⁄640 of a square mile or
4,840 square yards, but alternative definitions of a yard are used (see survey
foot and survey yard), so the exact size of an acre depends upon which yard it is
based. The US survey acre is about 4,046.872 square metres; its exact value
(4046+13,525,426/15,499,969  m2) is based on an inch defined by 1 metre = 39.37 inches
exactly, as established by the Mendenhall Order of 1922. Surveyors in the United
States use both international and survey feet, and consequently, both varieties of
acre.[6]
Since the difference between the US survey acre and international acre (0.016
square metres, 160 square centimetres or 24.8 square inches), is only about a
quarter of the size of an A4 sheet or US letter, it is usually not important which one is
being discussed. Areas are seldom measured with sufficient accuracy for the
different definitions to be detectable.[7]
In October 2019, U.S. National Geodetic Survey and National Institute of Standards
and Technology announced their joint intent to end the "temporary" continuance of
the US survey foot, mile and acre units (as permitted by their 1959 decision, above),
with effect from the end of 2022.[8][9]
Spanish acre[edit]
The Puerto Rican cuerda (0.39 ha; 0.97 acres) is sometimes called the "Spanish
acre" in the continental United States.[10]

Use[edit]
The acre is commonly used in a number of current and former Commonwealth
countries by custom, and in a few it continues as a statute measure. These include
Antigua and Barbuda,[11] American Samoa,[12] The Bahamas,[13] Belize,[14] the British
Virgin Islands,[15] the Cayman Islands,[16] Dominica,[17] the Falkland Islands,[18] Grenada,
[19]
 Ghana,[20] Guam,[21] the Northern Mariana Islands,[22] Jamaica,[23] Montserrat,
[24]
 Samoa,[25] Saint Lucia,[26] St. Helena,[27] St. Kitts and Nevis,[28] St. Vincent and the
Grenadines,[29] Turks and Caicos,[30] the United Kingdom, the United States and
the US Virgin Islands.[31]
South Asia[edit]
In India, residential plots are measured in square feet, while agricultural land is
measured in acres.[32] In Sri Lanka, the division of an acre into 160 perches or
4 roods is common.[33]
In Pakistan, residential plots is measured in Kanal (20 marla= 1 Kanal= 500 sq
yards) and open/agriculture land measurement is in acres(25 Kanal= 1 Acre) and
Muraba (8 Acre= 1 Muraba = 200 Kanals), jerib, wiswa and gunta.[citation needed]
United Kingdom[edit]
Its use as a primary unit for trade in the United Kingdom ceased to be permitted from
1 October 1995, due to the 1994 amendment of the Weights and Measures Act,
[34]
 where it was replaced by the hectare  – though its use as a supplementary unit
continues to be permitted indefinitely. [35] This was with exemption of Land registration,
[34]
 which records the sale and possession of land, [36] in 2010 HM Land Registry ended
its exemption.[35] The measure is still used to communicate with the public, [37] and
informally (non-contract) by the farming and property industries. [38][39][40]

Equivalence to other units of area[edit]

The area of one acre (red) superposed on an American football field (green) and Association
football/soccer pitch (blue).

1 international acre is equal to the following metric units:

 0.40468564224 hectare (A square with 100 m sides has

an area of 1 hectare.)
 4,046.8564224 square metres (or a square with
approximately 63.61 m sides)
1 United States survey acre is equal to:

 0.404687261 hectare
 4,046.87261 square metres (1 square kilometre is equal
to 247.105 acres)
1 acre (both variants) is equal to the following customary units:

 66 feet × 660 feet (43,560 square feet)

 10 square chains (1 chain = 66 feet = 22 yards = 4 rods
= 100 links)
 1 acre is approximately 208.71 feet × 208.71 feet (a
square)
 4,840 square yards
  43,560 square feet
 160 perches. A perch is equal to a square rod (1 square
rod is 0.00625 acre)
 4 roods
 A furlong by a chain (furlong 220 yards, chain 22 yards)
 40 rods by 4 rods, 160 rods2 (historically fencing was
often sold in 40 rod lengths[41])
 1
⁄640 (0.0015625) square mile (1 square mile is equal to
640 acres)
Perhaps the easiest way for US residents to envision an acre is as a rectangle
measuring 88 yards by 55 yards (1⁄10 of 880 yards by 1⁄16 of 880 yards), about 9⁄10 the
size of a standard American football field. To be more exact, one acre is 90.75% of a
100-yd-long by 53.33-yd-wide American football field (without the end zone). The full
field, including the end zones, covers about 1.32 acres (0.53 ha).
For residents of other countries, the acre might be envisioned as rather more than
half of a 1.76 acres (0.71 ha) football pitch.
It may also be remembered as 1% short of 44,000 square feet.

Historical origin[edit]

Farm-derived units of measurement:

1. The rod is a historical unit of length equal to 5  ⁄  yards. It may

1
2

have originated from the typical length of a mediaeval ox-

goad. There are 4 rods in one chain.
2. The furlong (meaning furrow length) was the distance a team
of oxen could plough without resting. This was standardised to
be exactly 40 rods or 10 chains.
 3. An acre was the amount of land tillable by one man behind
one ox in one day. Traditional acres were long and narrow due
to the difficulty in turning the plough and the value of river front
access.
4. An oxgang was the amount of land tillable by one ox in a
ploughing season. This could vary from village to village, but
was typically around 15 acres.
5. A virgate was the amount of land tillable by two oxen in a
ploughing season.
6. A carucate was the amount of land tillable by a team of eight
oxen in a ploughing season. This was equal to 8 oxgangs or 4
virgates.

The word "acre" is derived from Old English æcer originally meaning "open

field", cognate with west coast Norwegian ækre, Icelandic akur, Swedish åker,
German Acker, Dutch akker, Latin ager, Sanskrit ajr, and Greek αγρός (agros). In
English, it was historically spelled aker.
According to the Act on the Composition of Yards and Perches, dating from around
1300, an acre is "40 perches [rods] in length and four in breadth",[42] meaning 220
yards by 22 yards.[a] As detailed in the box on the right, an acre was roughly the
amount of land tillable by a yoke of oxen in one day. [43]
Before the enactment of the metric system, many countries in Europe used their own
official acres. In France, the acre (spelled exactly the same as in English) was used
only in Normandy, but its value varied greatly across Normandy, ranging from 3,632
to 9,725 square metres, with 8,172 square metres being the most frequent value.
The Normandy acre was usually divided in 4 vergées (roods) and 160
square perches, like the English acre.
The Normandy acre was equal to 1.6 arpents, the unit of area more commonly used
in Northern France outside of Normandy. In Canada, the Paris arpent used
in Quebec before the metric system was adopted is sometimes called "French acre"
in English, even though the Paris arpent and the Normandy acre were two very
different units of area in ancient France (the Paris arpent became the unit of area of
French Canada, whereas the Normandy acre was never used in French Canada).
In Germany there were many variants of the Acker, differing between the German
states:

Area in (local)
Place Name Area in m2
square rods

Prussia (1816–1869) Magdeburg Morgen 2,553.22 180

Morgen, Scheffel
Saxony (1781) 2,767 150
(Aussaat)
Bavaria Tagwerk 3,407 400

Grand Duchy of Baden (from

Badischer Morgen 3,600 400
1810)

Württemberg (1806–1871) Schwäbischer Morgen 3,152 384

Bergisches Land Bergischer Morgen 2,132 120

Cologne, Rhineland Rheinländischer Morgen 3,176 150

Hanover (before 1836) 2,608 120

Hanover (from 1836) 2,621 120

Hamburg 9,658 600 QGR

Schleswig-Holstein Steuertonne 5,466 260 QGeestR

Holstein Tonne (Tønde) 5,046 240 QGeestR

Mecklenburg 6,500 300

Franconia 2,000

Frankfurt am Main Feldmorgen 2,025 160 QFeldR

Homburg Castle 1,906 160

Oldenburg 2,256

Bremen 2,572 120

Kassel Acker 2,386 150

Waldeck-Pyrmont (as Prussia) 2,553.22 180

Lippe 2,574.881[44]

Landkreis Schaumburg 2,585 120

Frankfurt am Main Waldmorgen 3,256 160 QWaldR

Brunswick Waldmorgen 3,335 160

Oldenburg Jück 4,538 160

5,000
Danzig 300
(approx)

Deutschordensstaat Kulmischer Morgen 5,601.17 300

Ostfriesland Diemat (h) 5,674

Altes Land (Harburg und Stade) 8,185

Kehdingen Marschmorgen 10,477

Altes Land 10,484 480

Hadeln 11,780 540

Statutory values for the acre were enacted in England, and subsequently the United
Kingdom, by acts of:

 Edward I
 Edward III
 Henry VIII
  George IV
 Queen Victoria – the British Weights and Measures
Act of 1878 defined it as containing 4,840 square yards.
Historically, the size of farms and landed estates in the United Kingdom was usually
expressed in acres (or acres, roods, and perches), even if the number of acres was
so large that it might conveniently have been expressed in square miles. For
example, a certain landowner might have been said to own 32,000 acres of land, not
50 square miles of land.
The acre is related to the square mile, with 640 acres making up one square mile.
One mile is 5280 feet (1760 yards). In western Canada and the western United
States, divisions of land area were typically based on the square mile, and fractions
thereof. If the square mile is divided into quarters, each quarter has a side length of
1
⁄2 mile (880 yards) and is 1⁄4 square mile in area, or 160 acres. These subunits would
typically then again be divided into quarters, with each side being 1⁄4 mile long, and
being 1⁄16 of a square mile in area, or 40 acres. In the United States, farmland was
typically divided as such, and the phrase "the back 40" would refer to the 40-acre
parcel to the back of the farm. Most of the Canadian Prairie Provinces and the US
Midwest are on square-mile grids for surveying purposes.

Legacy acres[edit]
 Customary acre – The customary acre was a measure
of roughly similar size to the acre described above, but it
was subject to considerable local variation similar to the
variation found in carucates, virgates, bovates, nooks,
and farundels. These may have been multiples of the
customary acre, rather than the statute acre.
 Builder's acre – In US construction and real estate
development, an area of 40,000 square feet (200 x 200
ft. square). Used to simplify the math and for marketing,
it is nearly 10% smaller than a survey acre.
 Scottish acre, one of a number of obsolete Scottish
units of measurement
 Irish acre = 7,840 square yards
 Cheshire acre = 10,240 square yards[45]
 Stremma or Greek acre ≈ 10,000 square Greek feet, but
now set at exactly 1,000 square metres (a similar unit
was the zeugarion)[46]
 Dunam or Turkish acre ≈ 1,600 square Turkish paces,
but now set at exactly 1,000 square metres (a similar
unit was the çift)[46]
 Actus quadratus or Roman acre ≈ 14,400
square Roman feet (about 1,260 square metres)
 God's Acre – a synonym for a churchyard.[47]
 Long acre  – the grass strip on either side of a road that
may be used for illicit grazing.
See also[edit]
 Acre-foot – used in U.S. to measure large water
resource volumes
 Anthropic units
 Conversion of units
 French arpent – also used in Louisiana as length and
area unit of measure
 Jugerum
 a Morgen ("morning") of land is usually set at 2⁄3 of a
Tagwerk ("day work") of ploughing with an ox
 Public Land Survey System
 Quarter acre
 Section (United States land surveying)
 Spanish customary units

Notes[edit]
1. ^ 22 yards is about 20 meters.

References[edit]
1. ^ Fenna, Donald (2002). Dictionary of Weights, Measures and
Units. Oxford University Press. p. 4. ISBN 0-19-860522-6.
2. ^     National Institute of Standards and Technology (n.d.) General
a b

Tables of Units of Measurement. Archived 26 November 2006 at

the Wayback Machine.
3. ^ "Manuscripts and Special Collections – Measurements".
the  University of Nottingham. Retrieved  1 August 2018.
4. ^ Klein, Herbert Arthur (2012). The Science of Measurement: A
Historical Survey. Courier Corporation. p.  76. ISBN 978-0-486-
14497-9.
5. ^ a b "Refinement of Values for the Yard and the
Pound"  (PDF). noaa.gov. National Bureau of Standards. 25 June
1959. Archived from the original  (PDF) on 5 March 2020.
Retrieved 3 December 2006.
6. ^ National Geodetic Survey, (January 1991), Policy of the National
Geodetic Survey Concerning Units of Measure for the State Plane
Coordinate System of 1983.
7. ^ Minimum Standard Detail Requirements For ALTA/ACSM Land
Title Surveys. Archived 4 September 2013 at the Wayback
Machine. Federick, MD: American Congress on Surveying and
Mapping. 2011. [The standard uses "precision" in a sense more
typically used for "accuracy"; the stated maximum allowable
"precision" (page 3) is 2 cm and 50 parts per million. An instrument
consistently measuring 2 cm short would measure the area of a
one international acre square, 63.614907 m on a side, as 4044.3
square metres, 2.6 square metres less than the true value, a far
greater discrepancy than the difference between the international
and survey acres.]
8. ^ "NGS and NIST to Retire U.S. Survey Foot after 2022". National
Geodetic Survey. 31 October 2019. Retrieved 4 March 2020.
9. ^ "U.S. Survey Foot: Revised Unit Conversion Factors". NIST. 16
October 2019. Retrieved  4 March  2020.
10. ^ Units: C: cuerda. Russ Rowlett. The University of North Carolina
at Chapel Hill.
11. ^ "Gov't Gifts 'Bakka' With Half-Acre Land | Antigua Observer
Newspaper". Archived from the original  on 4 October 2013.
Retrieved 14 February 2014.
12. ^ "National Park of American Samoa completes two successful
forest projects | Samoa News". SamoaNews.com. Retrieved 14
February  2014.
13. ^ Lowe, Alison (15 August 2013). "Construction underway on Old
Fort School".  The Nassau Guardian.
14. ^ "2,225-acre Cobia farm proposed near Lark and Bugle Cayes |
Amandala Newspaper". amandala.com.bz. Retrieved 14
February  2014.
15. ^ "Work continues on development". bvibeacon.com. Retrieved 14
February  2014.
16. ^ "Kai drama over 50-acre development  :: cayCompass.com".
compasscayman.com. Retrieved  14 February  2014.
17. ^ "Dominica not meeting quota for international banana markets |
Dominica News Online". dominicanewsonline.com. Retrieved  14
February  2014.
18. ^ "Farm Yarns with Elaine – Farm yarns with Elaine Turner – Part
13". penguin-news.com. Archived from the original  on 24
September 2015. Retrieved  14 February  2014.
19. ^ "Grenada Broadcast – George Grant – THE GRENADA SPICES
INDUSTRY". grenadabroadcast.com. Archived from the
original on 4 October 2013. Retrieved 14 February 2014.
20. ^ Ofori-Atta, Prince.  "Mortgages in Ghana: Snapping up an acre
of Accra real estate".  www.theafricareport.com. Retrieved 31
March  2018.
21. ^ "Local News | Pacific Daily News". guampdn.com. Archived
from  the original on 1 October 2013. Retrieved 14 February 2014.
22. ^ "Islan Pagan".  saipantribune.com. Archived from  the original on
17 October 2013.
23. ^"Tropicrop%20Mushrooms%20Ltd%20v%20Saint%20Thomas
%20Parish%20Council%2C%20etal.pdf"  (PDF).
24. ^ "Beresford Allen of St. Peters Montserrat is a Wanted Man! |
The Montserrat Reporter". themontserratreporter.com.
Retrieved 14 February 2014.
25. ^ "Conflicting stories about Nu'u estate". samoaobserver.ws.
Archived from  the originalon 19 September 2018. Retrieved 14
February  2014.
26. ^ "The Voice – The national newspaper of St. Lucia since 1885".
thevoiceslu.com. Archived from  the original on 4 October 2013.
Retrieved 14 February 2014.
27. ^ "FEATURE: We built an island dream on our own St Helena | St
Helena Online". sthelenaonline.org. Archived from  the original on
21 October 2013. Retrieved 14 February2014.
28. ^ "SIDF Sinks SKN Passport Money into Christophe Harbour   ::
The St. Kitts-Nevis Observer". thestkittsnevisobserver.com.
Archived from  the original on 4 October 2013. Retrieved 14
February  2014.
 29. ^ "PM vows to spend rest of life seeking reparations – I-Witness
News". iwnsvg.com. Retrieved  14 February  2014.
30. ^ "Government gets $8million from Emerald Cay sale".
suntci.com. Retrieved 14 February2014.
31. ^ "Proposed dolphin facility will enclose about 2 acres of Water
Bay – News – Virgin Islands Daily News".
m.virginislandsdailynews.com. Archived from  the original on 22
October 2013. Retrieved  14 February  2014.
32. ^ "Land Measurement Units in India - Confident
Group". www.confident-group.com. 17 April 2020. Retrieved 19
October  2020.
33. ^ "What is a perch of land in Sri Lanka?". 27 July 2018.
Retrieved 19 October  2020.
34. ^ a b The Weights and Measures Act 1985 (Metrication)
(Amendment) Order 1994 HM Government, 1995
35. ^ a b "Explanatory memorandum to The weights and measures
(metrication amendments) regulations
2009"  (PDF).  Legislation.gov.uk. 2009.
36. ^ "Land Registration Act 2002".  legislation.gov.uk. UK: The
National Archives. 2002. Retrieved 3 August  2018.
37. ^ Waddesdon Estate: about us "By purchasing the adjoining land,
the estate has grown from the original 2,700 acres in 1874 to
6,000 acres in 2011. " Waddesdon Manor Estate
38. ^ "Outlook and historical context". Savills. 12 February 2018.
39. ^ "Amount of UK farmland put up for sale shrinks as prices
fall". Financial Times. 13 February 2018.
40. ^ "Land for Sale".  farminguk.
41. ^ "ed. 842".  Farmers' Bulletin. U.S. Government Printing Office:
24. 1919.
42. ^ Great Britain;  Owen Ruffhead (1765).  Statutes at Large. Printed
by M. Baskett. p. 421. Retrieved  12 February  2012. It is ordained
that 3  grains of barley  dry and round do make an  inch, 12 inches
make 1 foot, 3 feet make 1 yard, 5 yards and a half make a perch,
and 40 perches in length and 4 in breadth make an acre.
43. ^ "acre, n.".  Oxford English Dictionary. December 2011.
44. ^ Wüsten, Menschen und Geschichte. Bei: woiste.de.
45. ^ Holland, Robert. (1886). A glossary of words used in the County
of Chester. London: Trübner for the English Dialect Society. p. 3.
46. ^ a b Malcolm, Noel (1999).  Kosovo: A Short History. Harper
Perennial.  ISBN  978-0-06-097775-7.
47. ^ "God's Acre – Definition of God's acre by Merriam-Webster".

External links[edit]
Wikisource has the text of
the 1911  Encyclopædia
Britannica article Acre
(land measure).

 The Units of Measurement Regulations 1995 (United

Kingdom)
 Cockeyed.com presents "How much is inside an acre?"
 Imperial units

nits

stem
unit

Categories: 
 Customary units of measurement in the United States
 Imperial units
 Surveying
 Units of area
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