How Big is an Acre?
An acre measures land area. It’s a standard measurement in real estate listings, relaying the size of a property.
Whether you’re buying a home, planning for a garden, or trying to imagine how large an acre is, we’ll give you some visual representation and equivalent measurements.
What Does an Acre of Land Look Like?
Image the size of a football field without the end zones – that’s the size of an acre.
Other ways to visualize an acre include:
- 9.25 NBA basketball courts
- About 60% of a FIFA soccer field
- A square piece of land that measures 200 x 200 feet
- About 1,034 king-size mattresses laid next to each other
An Acre Compared to Other Measurements
An acre is a unit from the British Imperial and United States Customary systems. The original definition of an acre was 66 feet x 660 feet, also known as one chain by one furlong. It was the area a man with a team of oxen could plow in a single day.
Here’s how the acre compares to other measurements:
- An acre contains 43,560 square feet
- One acre is the equivalent of 0.404686 hectares
- One square mile equals 640 acres
- There are 247.105 square kilometers in an acre
- One acre has 4,046.86 square meters
How to Measure an Acre
If you have a square or rectangular piece of land, you can measure the length and width in feet and multiply those numbers by each other to determine the square footage. Then, divide the square footage by 43,560 to determine the equivalent amount of acres.
For example, if your land measures 70 ft x 250 ft, your calculations would look like this:
- 70 x 250 = 17,500 square foot
- 17,500 ÷ 43,560 = .4017 acres
The most accurate way to determine acreage is through professional land surveyors or digital mapping software. Digital mapping is the most precise way to determine the acreage of irregular lots.
The Average Residential Lot Size in Acres in the United States
The latest US Census Bureau study from 2020 reveals the national average lot size for new homes is 13,896 square feet, equal to .32 acres. Vermont has the biggest lot size at 78,408 square feet, equivalent to 1.8 acres. Nevada has the smallest lot size at 7,405 square feet or .17 acres.
Lot size in the United States has decreased over the last 45 years. In 1978, the national average lot size was 18,760 square feet – the equivalent of .43 acres.
Average Price of an Acre in the United States
The average price of an acre in the United States is $17,482 for 2023. The state with the lowest acre cost is Wyoming at $5,684 per acre. The most expensive state is Rhode Island, where one acre can cost over $93,000.
Check out other cubic conversion calculators:
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)FAQ
What’s a commercial acre?
A commercial acre is smaller than a residential acre, clocking in at 36,000 square feet versus 43,560 square feet of a residential acre. The commercial acre is smaller to account for structures a business owner can’t modify, such as sidewalks and alleyways.
What’s the length and width of an acre?
An acre can be any length and width as long as the space adds up to 43,560 square feet. A perfect square acre is 208.71 feet long and 208.71 feet wide. But an acre can be rectangular, triangle, or irregularly shaped.
How big is a quarter of an acre?
A quarter of an acre is 10,890 square feet. The dimensions of a perfect square quarter acre would be about 104 feet wide by 104 feet long.
How big is half an acre?
A half an acre contains 21,780 square feet. Imagine it as half of a football field, excluding the end zones.