Botswana - Surface area (sq. km)

The value for Surface area (sq. km) in Botswana was 581,730 as of 2018. As the graph below shows, over the past 57 years this indicator reached a maximum value of 581,730 in 2018 and a minimum value of 581,730 in 1961.

Definition: Surface area is a country's total area, including areas under inland bodies of water and some coastal waterways.

Source: Food and Agriculture Organization, electronic files and web site.

See also:

Year Value
1961 581,730
1962 581,730
1963 581,730
1964 581,730
1965 581,730
1966 581,730
1967 581,730
1968 581,730
1969 581,730
1970 581,730
1971 581,730
1972 581,730
1973 581,730
1974 581,730
1975 581,730
1976 581,730
1977 581,730
1978 581,730
1979 581,730
1980 581,730
1981 581,730
1982 581,730
1983 581,730
1984 581,730
1985 581,730
1986 581,730
1987 581,730
1988 581,730
1989 581,730
1990 581,730
1991 581,730
1992 581,730
1993 581,730
1994 581,730
1995 581,730
1996 581,730
1997 581,730
1998 581,730
1999 581,730
2000 581,730
2001 581,730
2002 581,730
2003 581,730
2004 581,730
2005 581,730
2006 581,730
2007 581,730
2008 581,730
2009 581,730
2010 581,730
2011 581,730
2012 581,730
2013 581,730
2014 581,730
2015 581,730
2016 581,730
2017 581,730
2018 581,730

Development Relevance: Total surface area is particularly important for understanding an economy's agricultural capacity and the environmental effects of human activity. Innovations in satellite mapping and computer databases have resulted in more precise measurements of land and water areas. Population, surface area, income, and output are basic measures of the size of an economy. They also provide a broad indication of actual and potential resources. Land area is therefore used as one of the major indicator to normalize other indicators.

Limitations and Exceptions: The data are collected by the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations through annual questionnaires. The FAO tries to impose standard definitions and reporting methods, but complete consistency across countries and over time is not possible. The data collected from official national sources through the questionnaire are supplemented with information from official secondary data sources. The secondary sources cover official country data from websites of national ministries, national publications and related country data reported by various international organizations.

Statistical Concept and Methodology: Total land area includes inland water bodies such as major rivers and lakes. Variations from year to year may be due to updated or revised data rather than to change in area.

Aggregation method: Sum

Periodicity: Annual

Classification

Topic: Environment Indicators

Sub-Topic: Land use