Hectare

The hectare (/ˈhɛktɛər, -tɑːr/; SI symbol:

ha) is a non-SI metric unit of area equal
to a square with 100-metre sides (1 hm2),
or 10,000 m2, and is primarily used in the
measurement of land. There are 100
hectares in one square kilometre. An
acre is about 0.405 hectare and one
hectare contains about 2.47 acres.
 hectare

A visualisation of one hectare

General information

Unit system Non-SI unit accepted

for use with SI

Unit of Area

Symbol ha

Conversions

1 ha in ... ... is equal to ...

   SI base units:    104 m2

   Imperial and US    1 hectare

customary units (11,960 square yards;
2.4711 acres)

In 1795, when the metric system was

introduced, the are was defined as 100
square metres and the hectare ("hecto-" +
"are") was thus 100 ares or 1⁄100 km2
(10,000 square metres). When the metric
system was further rationalised in 1960,
resulting in the International System of
Units (SI), the are was not included as a
recognised unit. The hectare, however,
remains as a non-SI unit accepted for
use with the SI and whose use is
"expected to continue indefinitely".
Though the dekare/decare daa
(1,000 m2) and are a (100 m2) are not
officially "accepted for use", they are still
used in some contexts.

Description
Comparison of area units
Unit SI

1 ca 1 m2

1a 100 m2

1 ha 10,000 m2

1,000,000 m2
100 ha
1 km2

non-SI comparisons

non-SI metric

0.3861 sq mi 1 km2

2.471 acre 1 ha

107,639 sq ft 1 ha

1 sq mi 259.0 ha

1 acre 0.4047 ha
Trafalgar Square has an area of about one
hectare.[1]

The hectare (/ˈhɛktɛər, -tɑːr/[2]), although

not a unit of SI, is the only named unit of
area that is accepted for use with SI
units.[3] The name was coined in French,
from the Latin ārea.[4] In practice the
hectare is fully derived from the SI, being
equivalent to a square hectometre. It is
widely used throughout the world for the
measurement of large areas of land,[5]
and it is the legal unit of measure in
domains concerned with land ownership,
planning, and management, including law
(land deeds), agriculture, forestry, and
town planning throughout the European
Union[6] and Australia (since 1970).[7][8]
However the United Kingdom,[9] United
States, Burma,[10][11] and to some extent
Canada use the acre instead.

Some countries that underwent a general

conversion from traditional
measurements to metric measurements
(e.g. Canada) required a resurvey when
units of measure in legal descriptions
relating to land were converted to metric
units. Others, such as South Africa,
published conversion factors which were
to be used particularly "when preparing
consolidation diagrams by
compilation".[12]

In many countries, metrication redefined

or clarified existing measures in terms of
metric units. The following legacy units
of area have been redefined as being
equal to one hectare:[13]

Jerib in Iran
Djerib in Turkey[14]
Gong Qing (公頃 in traditional Chinese
character, 公顷 in simplified Chinese
character, gōngqǐng in Pinyin) in
Greater China
Manzana in Argentina
 Bunder in The Netherlands (until
1937)[15][16]

History
The metric system of measurement was
first given a legal basis in 1795 by the
French Revolutionary government. The
law of 18 Germinal, Year III (7 April 1795)
defined five units of measure:[17]

The metre for length

The are (100 m2) for area [of land]
The stère (1 m3) for volume of stacked
firewood[18]
The litre (1 dm3) for volumes of liquid
The gram for mass
In 1960, when the metric system was
updated as the International System of
Units (SI), the are did not receive
international recognition. The
International Committee for Weights and
Measures (CIPM) makes no mention of
the are in the current (2006) definition of
the SI, but classifies the hectare as a
"Non-SI unit accepted for use with the
International System of Units".[19]

In 1972, the European Economic

Community (EEC) passed directive
71/354/EEC,[20] which catalogued the
units of measure that might be used
within the Community. The units that
were catalogued replicated the
recommendations of the CGPM,
supplemented by a few other units
including the are (and implicitly the
hectare) whose use was limited to the
measurement of land.

Unit family

Definition of a hectare and of an are

The names centiare, deciare, decare and
hectare are derived by adding the
standard metric prefixes to the original
base unit of area, the are.

Decimilliare …

The decimilliare (sometimes seen in

cadastre area evaluation of real estate
plots) is 1⁄10,000 are or one square
decimetre.[21]

Centiare …

The centiare is one square metre.[22][23]

Deciare …
The deciare (rarely used) is ten square
metres.[24]

Are …

The are (/ɑːr/[25] or /ɛər/[26]) is a unit of

area, equal to 100 square metres
(10 m × 10 m), used for measuring land
area. It was defined by older forms of the
metric system, but is now outside the
modern International System of Units
(SI).[27] It is still commonly used in
speech to measure real estate, in
particular in Indonesia, India, and in
various European countries.
In Russian and some other languages of
the former Soviet Union, the are is called
sotka (Russian: сотка: 'a hundred', i.e.
100 m2 or 1⁄100 hectare). It is used to
describe the size of suburban dacha or
allotment garden plots or small city parks
where the hectare would be too large.

Decare …

The decare or dekare (/ˈdɛkɑːr, -ɛər/) is

derived from deca and are, and is equal
to 10 ares or 1000 square metres. It is
used in Norway[28] and in the former
Ottoman areas of the Middle East and
the Balkans (Bulgaria)[29] as a measure
of land area. Instead of the name
"decare", the names of traditional land
measures are usually used, redefined as
one decare:

Stremma in Greece[30]
Dunam, dunum, donum, or dönüm in
Israel, Palestine, Jordan, Lebanon,
Syria and Turkey[31]
Mål is used for decare in Norway, from
the old measure of about the same
area.

Conversions
Metric and imperial/U.S. customary comparisons
Multiple of Fraction of Imperial/U.S.
SI
Unit name Symbol preceding succeeding customary
equivalents
unit unit equivalents

centiare ca 0.1 da 1 m2 10.7639 sq ft

deciare da 10 ca 0.1 a 10 m2 11.9599 sq yd

are a[32] 10 da 0.1 daa 100 m2 3.95369 perches

decare daa 10 a 0.1 ha 1000 m2 0.98842 roods

about
hectare ha[5] 10 daa 0.01 km2 10 000 m2
2.471 0538 acres

square
km2 100 ha 1 000 000 m2 0.38610 sq mi
kilometre

The most commonly used units are in

bold.

One hectare is also equivalent to:

1 square hectometre
15 mǔ or 0.15 qǐng[33]
10 dunam or dönüm (Middle East)[34]
10 stremmata (Greece)
6.25 rai (Thailand)[35]
 approximately 1.008 chō (Japan)
approximately 2.381 feddan (Egypt)

See also
Conversion of units
Hectometre
Order of magnitude

References
1. "Department for Environment, Food
and Rural Affairs, and Rural
Payments Agency; The Delays in
Administering the 2005 Single
Payment Scheme in England" (PDF).
National Audit Office. 18 October
2006. p. 27.
2. "hectare" . Oxford Dictionaries.
Retrieved 24 December 2010.
3. Bureau international des poids et
mesures (2006). "The International
System of Units (SI)" (PDF). 8th ed.
Retrieved 13 February 2008. Chapter
5.
4. Oxford English Dictionary, 1st edition
s.v.
5. BIPM (2014). "SI Brochure, Table 6" .
Retrieved 17 November 2014.
6. The Council of the European
Communities (27 May 2009).
"Council Directive 80/181/EEC of 20
December 1979 on the
approximation of the laws of the
 Member States relating to Unit of
measurement and on the repeal of
Directive 71/354/EEC" . Retrieved
29 January 2010.
7. Commonwealth of Australia (1970).
"Metric Conversion Act" . Retrieved
14 August 2020.
8. Metric Pioneer (2020). "Metric
Pioneer" . Retrieved 14 August 2020.
9. "Weights and Measures Act 1985"
(PDF). British Government. 1985.
Retrieved 17 December 2016.
10. "Appendix G – Weights and
Measures" . The World Factbook.
CIA. 2006. Retrieved 8 August 2006.
11. MYA/01/008 Agriculture Sectore
Review, Working Paper No. 6 –
Agroindustry in Myanmar Archived
15 May 2013 at the Wayback
Machine
12. "Instructions for the Conversions of
Areas to Metric" . Law Society of
South Africa. November 2007.
Retrieved 21 January 2011.
13. Britannica, unit of measurement ,
accessed 30 October 2009
14. Chisholm, Hugh (1911). The
Encyclopædia britannica: a
dictionary of arts, sciences, literature
and general information . The
 Encyclopædia britannica company.
p. 442 . Retrieved 15 March 2012.
15. Oscar van Vlijmen (11 September
2006). "Oppervlakte" [Area].
Eenheden, constanten en conversies
[Units, constants and conversion] (in
Dutch). Retrieved 15 January 2011.
16. Jacob de Gelder (1824). Allereerste
Gronden der Cijferkunst
[Introduction to Numeracy] (in
Dutch). 's-Gravenhage and
Amsterdam: de Gebroeders van
Cleef. p. 156 . Retrieved
19 September 2012.
17. "La loi du 18 Germinal an 3 " la
mesure [républicaine] de superficie
 pour les terrains, égale à un carré de
dix mètres de côté »" [The law of 18
Germanial year 3 "The [Republican]
measure of land area equivalent to a
ten-metre square"] (in French). Le
CIV (Centre d'Instruction de
Vilgénis) – Forum des Anciens.
Retrieved 2 March 2010.
18. Thierry Thomasset. "Le stère" (PDF).
Tout sur les unités de mesure [All the
units of measure] (in French).
Université de Technologie de
Compiègne. Archived from the
original (PDF) on 21 July 2011.
Retrieved 21 March 2011.
19. "SI brochure (Chapter 4; Table 6)" .
International Bureau of Weights and
Measures. 2006. Archived from the
original on 1 October 2009.
Retrieved 5 March 2010.
20. "Council Directive of 18 October
1971 on the approximation of laws
of the member states relating to
units of measurement,
(71/354/EEC)" . Retrieved 7 February
2009.
21. Robinson, Horatio Nelson; Fish,
Daniel W. (1858). Robinson's
Progressive Practical Arithmetic:
Containing the Theory of Numbers in
Connection with Concise Analytic
 and Synthetic Methods of Solution,
and Designed as a Complete Text-
book on this Science for Common
Schools and Academies . Ivison,
Blakeman, Taylor. p. 363.
22. "centiare" . Dictionary.com.
Dictionary.com, LLC. Retrieved
16 October 2019.
23. "centiare" . Collins Dictionary. Collins
Publishers. Retrieved 16 October
2019.
24. "deciare" . Merriam Webster
Dictionary. Merriam-Webster,
Incorporated. Retrieved 16 October
2019.
25. "are" . Oxford Dictionaries. Retrieved
24 December 2010.
26. "are – definition. American English
definition of are by Macmillan
Dictionary" .
Macmillandictionary.com. Retrieved
20 May 2012.
27. "SI brochure (8th edition)" . BIPM.
March 2006.
28. "Decrease in total grain yield" . Grain
and oil seeds, area and production,
2002. Statistics Norway. Retrieved
16 November 2010.
29. "Market of agricultural land in
Bulgaria" . BNR Radio Bulgaria. 5
October 2010. Archived from the
 original on 22 October 2010.
Retrieved 16 November 2010.
30. Λεξικό της κοινής Νεοελληνικής
(Dictionary of Modern Greek),
Ινστιτούτο Νεοελληνικών Σπουδών,
Θεσσαλονίκη, 1998. ISBN 960-231-
085-5
31. El-Eini, Roza I.M. (2006). "Currency
and Measures" . Mandated
landscape: British imperial rule in
Palestine, 1929–1948 . Routledge.
p. xxiii. ISBN 978-0-7146-5426-3.
Retrieved 5 May 2009.
32. BS350:Part 1:1974 Conversion
factors and tables Part 1. Basis of
 tables. Conversion factors. British
Standards Institution. 1974. p. 7.
33. "Chinese Measurements – Units of
Area" . On-line Chinese Tools.
Retrieved 24 December 2010.
34. François Cardarelli (2003).
Encyclopaedia of scientific units,
weights, and measures: their SI
equivalences and origins . London,
Berlin and Heidelberg: Springer
Verlag. p. 97 . ISBN 1-85233-682-X.
Retrieved 29 March 2011.
"metrication malta."
35. "Thailand Property Conversion" .
Siam Legal (Thailand) Co., Ltd.
Retrieved 24 December 2010.
External links

Wikimedia Commons has media

related to Hectare.

Look up hectare in Wiktionary, the

free dictionary.

Official SI website: Table 6. Non-SI

units accepted for use with the
International System of Units

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