Area Converter – Square Metres, Square Feet, Acres and Hectares

Area units are squared lengths

An area unit is a length unit multiplied by itself, so the conversion factor is squared as well. A foot is 0.3048 m, which makes a square foot 0.3048 × 0.3048 = 0.09290304 m². A metre is 3.28084 feet, but a square metre is 10.7639 square feet – not 3.28. This is the most common mistake in area calculations, and the reason a dedicated converter is useful.

Land area: acres and hectares

• Hectare (ha) – 10,000 m², a square of 100 × 100 metres. Used for farmland and plots in metric countries.
• Acre (ac) – 4,046.86 m², originally the area a team of oxen could plough in a day. Used in the United States and the United Kingdom.
• Square kilometre (km²) – 100 hectares or 1,000,000 m², used for cities, lakes and regions.
• Square mile (mi²) – 640 acres or about 2.59 km².

One hectare is about 2.47 acres, and one acre is about 0.405 hectares. A football pitch is roughly 0.7 hectares, or 1.76 acres.

Floor space: square metres and square feet

Property listings in the United States and Canada give floor space in square feet, while most other countries use square metres. To estimate quickly, multiply square metres by 10.76 to get square feet, or divide square feet by 10.76 to get square metres. An apartment of 80 m² is about 861 ft², and a 2,000 ft² house is about 186 m².

Measuring an area first

For a rectangular room, multiply the length by the width in the same unit, then convert the result. For an L-shaped room, split it into rectangles and add them together. When you buy flooring, tiles or paint, add a margin for cutting waste; the Home & DIY calculators can help with the materials.

Sources

Conversion factors follow the SI definitions in the BIPM SI Brochure and the exact factors for US customary and imperial units in NIST Special Publication 811.