How big is an acre – a unit of area commonly used for measuring tracts of land? This is an important word as most properties are defined in some fraction or multiple of an acre. So how big is it and where did it come from?

Maybe you own an acre or some multiple of an acre. Did you know that an acre was originally defined as the amount of land that could be plowed by one man and an ox in one day? Not very specific, but thankfully today an acre is more clearly defined.

Let’s Start With The Facts

An acre is:

43,560 square feet
4,840 square yards
4,046.86 square meters
0.404686 hectares

The most common shape for an acre is 1 furlong by 1 chain, or 660 feet by 66 feet. And 5 acre parcels, typically divided up from a larger parcel like a “section.” are often 660 feet by 330 feet. A “section” of land is 640 acres in a square mile (5280′ x 5280′) however an acre can be measured in any two dimensional shape – from a rectangle to a circle or even a hexagon – so long as the total area of land is 43,560 square feet.

If you’re struggling to get your head around just how big an acre actually is, try visualizing 75% of a football field, or a football field minus the end zones and the last 10 yards. An American football field, including end zones, commonly measures around 57,564 square feet or 1.32 acres.

If that still doesn’t help, consider a parking lot containing 150 cars parked in a square, or 16 tennis courts in a 4×4 formation or how about 60% of a soccer pitch. In case you are wondering, FIFA states that the optimal size of a soccer pitch is between 69,000 and 86,000 square feet (source).

Or better yet, how about a picture of an actual one acre lot. Here’s a picture of a one acre lot next to another one acre lot with a house, yard, and driveway for scale.

Think you’ve got it? It’s BIG. But often the property you may own is some multiple of an acre. With that question in mind, here are some interesting facts for you to consider:

How many acres?

A “city block” is between 2 to 5 acres depending on where you live. Most city blocks are 660 feet by 330 feet or 217,800 square feet which is exactly 5 acres, but each city varies with its age and topography.
An NBA basketball court is 94′ long and 50′ wide for a total of 4700 square feet, which is 0.11 acre or very similar in size to many residential lots in large cities.
According to the United States Census, the total area of New York City measures approximately 300,000 acres (468.9 square miles), although that figure includes Central Park which is 843 acres.
The Amazon Rainforest measures approximately 1,359,079,598 acres. (2,123,561 square miles), at least as of a few years ago it did!
It has been estimated that the surface area of the moon measures approximately 9,383,748,198 acres (14,657,415 square miles). (source: Space Settlement Institute)
A “nanoacre” is a unit of real estate on a VLSI chip equal to 0.00627264 sq in. Nanoacres have costs in the same range as real acres in Silicon Valley.

Hopefully the information above has helped you with the size of an acre and if you happen to own some land that you are thinking of selling, well then . . .