How big is an acre?
An acre is 43,560 square feet. As a square, it is about 208.7 feet on each side. Picture a football field with a quarter of it cut off.
One acre = 43,560 square feet = 4,046.86 square meters = 0.4047 hectares.
An acre in things you know
- A football field. An American football field with both end zones covers 57,600 square feet. One acre is about three quarters of it.
- Without the end zones, the playing field is 48,000 square feet, so an acre is about nine tenths of that.
- A square. One acre as a square is about 208.7 feet on each side, a little under 70 yards.
- Tennis courts. About fifteen and a half doubles courts fit in an acre.
- Parking. Roughly 150 cars, once you allow for the driving lanes.
- House lots. At a quarter acre each, four lots make an acre before any land goes to streets.
The exact numbers
| Unit | One acre equals |
|---|---|
| Square feet | 43,560 |
| Square yards | 4,840 |
| Square meters | 4,046.86 |
| Hectares | 0.4047 |
| Square miles | 1/640 |
Where the acre came from
The acre is a medieval farming measure: the land a team of oxen could plow in one day. It was laid out as a long strip, one furlong (660 feet) by one chain (66 feet), because turning a plow team was slow and long furrows wasted less time.
An acre has no fixed shape
An acre is an amount of area, not a set of dimensions. 660 by 66 feet is an acre. So is 435.6 by 100 feet. When someone says a lot is “an acre,” ask for the shape, because the shape decides what fits on it.
How much of an acre can you use?
Less than all of it, usually. Setbacks, easements, floodplain, wetlands, and slopes take their share. On larger tracts the difference between total acres and usable acres can decide a project. See the usable acreage calculator and gross acres are not usable acres.
Questions
How many square feet are in an acre?
There are 43,560 square feet in one acre.
How long does it take to walk around an acre?
A square acre has a perimeter of about 835 feet. At a normal walking pace that takes three to four minutes.
Is an acre bigger than a football field?
No. An acre is smaller: about three quarters of a football field including the end zones.
How many acres is a square mile?
One square mile is 640 acres.
Tell us what the project needs
Load, acreage, counties, and timeline. We reply with how we would run the search and where we would start.