South Africa - Land area (sq. km)

The value for Land area (sq. km) in South Africa was 1,213,090 as of 2021. As the graph below shows, over the past 60 years this indicator reached a maximum value of 1,213,090 in 2021 and a minimum value of 1,213,090 in 1961.

Definition: Land area is a country's total area, excluding area under inland water bodies, national claims to continental shelf, and exclusive economic zones. In most cases the definition of inland water bodies includes major rivers and lakes.

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

See also:

Year Value
1961 1,213,090
1962 1,213,090
1963 1,213,090
1964 1,213,090
1965 1,213,090
1966 1,213,090
1967 1,213,090
1968 1,213,090
1969 1,213,090
1970 1,213,090
1971 1,213,090
1972 1,213,090
1973 1,213,090
1974 1,213,090
1975 1,213,090
1976 1,213,090
1977 1,213,090
1978 1,213,090
1979 1,213,090
1980 1,213,090
1981 1,213,090
1982 1,213,090
1983 1,213,090
1984 1,213,090
1985 1,213,090
1986 1,213,090
1987 1,213,090
1988 1,213,090
1989 1,213,090
1990 1,213,090
1991 1,213,090
1992 1,213,090
1993 1,213,090
1994 1,213,090
1995 1,213,090
1996 1,213,090
1997 1,213,090
1998 1,213,090
1999 1,213,090
2000 1,213,090
2001 1,213,090
2002 1,213,090
2003 1,213,090
2004 1,213,090
2005 1,213,090
2006 1,213,090
2007 1,213,090
2008 1,213,090
2009 1,213,090
2010 1,213,090
2011 1,213,090
2012 1,213,090
2013 1,213,090
2014 1,213,090
2015 1,213,090
2016 1,213,090
2017 1,213,090
2018 1,213,090
2019 1,213,090
2020 1,213,090
2021 1,213,090

Development Relevance: Land 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, land 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 does not include 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