United States - Surface area (sq. km)

The value for Surface area (sq. km) in United States was 9,831,510 as of 2018. As the graph below shows, over the past 57 years this indicator reached a maximum value of 9,831,510 in 2018 and a minimum value of 9,629,090 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 9,629,090
1962 9,629,090
1963 9,629,090
1964 9,629,090
1965 9,629,090
1966 9,629,090
1967 9,629,090
1968 9,629,090
1969 9,629,090
1970 9,629,090
1971 9,629,090
1972 9,629,090
1973 9,629,090
1974 9,629,090
1975 9,629,090
1976 9,629,090
1977 9,629,090
1978 9,629,090
1979 9,629,090
1980 9,629,090
1981 9,629,090
1982 9,629,090
1983 9,629,090
1984 9,629,090
1985 9,629,090
1986 9,629,090
1987 9,629,090
1988 9,629,090
1989 9,629,090
1990 9,629,090
1991 9,629,090
1992 9,629,090
1993 9,629,090
1994 9,629,090
1995 9,629,090
1996 9,629,090
1997 9,629,090
1998 9,629,090
1999 9,629,090
2000 9,632,030
2001 9,632,030
2002 9,632,030
2003 9,632,030
2004 9,632,030
2005 9,632,030
2006 9,632,030
2007 9,632,030
2008 9,831,510
2009 9,831,510
2010 9,831,510
2011 9,831,510
2012 9,831,510
2013 9,831,510
2014 9,831,510
2015 9,831,510
2016 9,831,510
2017 9,831,510
2018 9,831,510

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