These include Antigua and Barbuda,[11] American Samoa,[12] The Bahamas,[13] Belize,[14] the British Virgin Islands,[15] the Cayman Islands,[16] Dominica,[17] the Falkland Islands,[18] Grenada,[19] Ghana,[20] Guam,[21] the Northern Mariana Islands,[22] Jamaica,[23] Montserrat,[24] Samoa,[25] Saint Lucia,[26] St. Helena,[27] St. Kitts and Nevis,[28] St. Vincent and the Grenadines,[29] Turks and Caicos,[30] the United Kingdom, the United States and the US Virgin Islands. To date, 57,480 wildfires have burned more than 10.3 million acres across the United States. So what is the third biggest use of land in the U.S.? ), 4,046.8564224 square metres (or a square with approximately 63.61 m sides), 4,046.87261 square metres (1 square kilometre is equal to 247.105 acres), 1 acre is approximately 208.71 feet × 208.71 feet (a square), A furlong by a chain (furlong 220 yards, chain 22 yards), Customary acre – The customary acre was a measure of roughly similar size to the acre described above, but it was subject to considerable local variation similar to the variation found in. Weather Santa Ana winds will continue today into Thursday across southern California with dry and windy conditions also across portions of the Southwest and southern High Plains. Some states, however, had relatively large shares of organic farmland. OK, so the main events of the Happy Meal is of course the beef burger. In the past 10 years, it's been growing at a rate of about 1 million acres per year. acres in the United States (as of September 30, 2017), consisting of military bases, training ranges, and more. Simplot Family - 82,500 farmland acres. U.S. land area covers nearly 2.3 billion acres. And so that's corn for livestock, soy for livestock. So that's the size of about Phoenix and LA and Houston combined, every year, growing in urban area. These subunits would typically then again be divided into quarters, with each side being ​1⁄4 mile long, and being ​1⁄16 of a square mile in area, or 40 acres. But, first, I want to speak with Lauren Leatherby. STACEY VANEK SMITH, BYLINE: And this got us thinking. About 41% was used for either grazing or to grow food for livestock - was, really, pretty surprising to us. Stacey Vanek Smith and Cardiff Garcia from NPR's daily economics podcast, The Indicator, look at how all that land is divvied up. In Canada, the Paris arpent used in Quebec before the metric system was adopted is sometimes called "French acre" in English, even though the Paris arpent and the Normandy acre were two very different units of area in ancient France (the Paris arpent became the unit of area of French Canada, whereas the Normandy acre was never used in French Canada). For example, a certain landowner might have been said to own 32,000 acres of land, not 50 square miles of land. The 15% number strikes me as high. Within this large area, the country is divided into several environments, from snow-capped mountains to hot, sandy deserts. The USDA reported that farmers intended to plant 89 million acres of soybeans and 88 million acres of corn in 2018. Many other agencies administer the remaining federal acreage. The United States covers nearly 3.8 million square miles. It's hundreds of millions of acres big, and it's full of resources, not to mention some of the most productive land on Earth. VANEK SMITH: After going over the land use data myself, I came up with this object that I think really represents in one word - I guess it's actually two words - how we use land in the U.S. In addition to the 755.3 million the government also owns 820 million acres of the continental shelf. [10], The acre is commonly used in a number of current and former Commonwealth countries by custom, and in a few it continues as a statute measure. Learn more about the history of forestry and the changes in forested acres in the United States. To be more exact, one acre is 90.75% of a 100-yd-long by 53.33-yd-wide American football field (without the end zone). VANEK SMITH: And this is of course the largest use of land in the U.S. - that is, cow pasture - 654 million acres, plus the feed for the livestock, which is 127.4 million acres. An acre-foot is the amount of water needed to cover an acre to the depth of one foot. 109,000 cemeteries. [32] In Sri Lanka, the division of an acre into 160 perches or 4 roods is common. The U.S. is a big place, nearly 1.9 billion acres. How many acres a day is the United States losing to land development? The US survey acre is about 4,046.872 square metres; its exact value (.mw-parser-output .sr-only{border:0;clip:rect(0,0,0,0);height:1px;margin:-1px;overflow:hidden;padding:0;position:absolute;width:1px;white-space:nowrap}4046+13,525,426/15,499,969 m2) is based on an inch defined by 1 metre = 39.37 inches exactly, as established by the Mendenhall Order of 1922. There are 2.2 Billion acres onshore. Overview of Land Use in the United States- The U.S. has 2.3 billion acres of land. [citation needed], Its use as a primary unit for trade in the United Kingdom ceased to be permitted from 1 October 1995, due to the 1994 amendment of the Weights and Measures Act,[34] where it was replaced by the hectare  – though its use as a supplementary unit continues to be permitted indefinitely. In Germany there were many variants of the Acker, differing between the German states: Statutory values for the acre were enacted in England, and subsequently the United Kingdom, by acts of: Historically, the size of farms and landed estates in the United Kingdom was usually expressed in acres (or acres, roods, and perches), even if the number of acres was so large that it might conveniently have been expressed in square miles. A description of the differences between the August 2019 NASS crop acre estimates and the FSA certified acres reported to FSA can be found on the Office of the Chief Economist website, click this link for more information. Mojave Desert The landscape of the Mojave Desert. It's about 1.9 billion acres of land that we're dealing with, entirely. 4. “The Pioneer Woman” Ree Drummond is one of the biggest landowners in the United States according to a new report. LEATHERBY: That's by far the fastest growing. Give every person one acre, and you’d cover about 13% of the USA. Used to simplify the math and for marketing, it is nearly 10% smaller than a survey acre. In the United States, farmland was typically divided as such, and the phrase "the back 40" would refer to the 40-acre parcel to the back of the farm. Cropland is about a fifth of the U.S. However, 375 million acres are in Alaska and not suitable for agricultural production. 5. [8][9], The Puerto Rican cuerda (0.39 ha; 0.97 acres) is sometimes called the "Spanish acre" in the continental United States. Surveyors in the United States use both international and survey feet, and consequently, both varieties of acre. And that's a combination of unprotected forestland, which means that it's not a part of a national park or state park, and about 14% was owned by corporations. But how does that land get used? And she went through the reports issued from the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Alaska accounts for more than 17% of the total acres in the United States. Im sure you could never know how many in actuallity since many are probably abandoned and overgrown or forgotten family burial sites. In the international yard and pound agreement of 1959, the United States and five countries of the Commonwealth of Nations defined the international yard to be exactly 0.9144 metre. China, on the other hand, accounted for more than 80 percent of the world's supply," the report stated. Both the international acre and the US survey acre contain ​1⁄640 of a square mile or 4,840 square yards, but alternative definitions of a yard are used (see survey foot and survey yard), so the exact size of an acre depends upon which yard it is based. The United States has more than 2.4 billion acres of total area (land and water). And then we get to a relatively small category, which is urban areas. Before the enactment of the metric system, many countries in Europe used their own official acres. [6], Since the difference between the US survey acre and international acre (0.016 square metres, 160 square centimetres or 24.8 square inches), is only about a quarter of the size of an A4 sheet or US letter, it is usually not important which one is being discussed. 31 million acres of farmland lost to development, in total, between 1992 and 2012. Hay predominates in the West, however, and in Nebraska and Kansas, there are more acres of corn than anything else. From what I can see the number appears to be closer to 3 or 4%. The U.S. is a big place, nearly 1.9 billion acres. This page was last edited on 25 December 2020, at 01:58. The average size of farms in the United States has seen a steady increase over the last decade. A total of almost 4 million hectares (10 million acres) of timber is harvested each year, but most of that timber regenerates and remains classified as forested land, albeit at a … I found a few rough estimates that may shed some light on this. [35] The measure is still used to communicate with the public,[37] and informally (non-contract) by the farming and property industries.[38][39][40]. But that still leaves us with about 700 million acres. Visit our website terms of use and permissions pages at www.npr.org for further information. The United States is home to over 318 million people and 2.27 billion acres of land. It is esti­ mated that, on average, over 60 acres of wetlands have been lost every hour in the lower 48 states during this 200-year timespan. Soybeans traditionally come in second to corn as the most planted crop in the U.S. There are 1.9 billion acres of land in the continental United States. The acre is a statute measure in the United States, in the United Kingdom and in almost all countries of the former British Empire: in most it is lawful to "use for trade" if given as supplementary information and is not used for land registration. [35] This was with exemption of Land registration,[34] which records the sale and possession of land,[36] in 2010 HM Land Registry ended its exemption. Acreage (June 2019) 5 USDA, National Agricultural Statistics Service Principal Crops Area Planted – States and United States: 2017-2019 [Crops included in area planted are corn, sorghum, oats, barley, rye, winter wheat, Durum wheat, other spring wheat, rice, soybeans, peanuts, Despite an unusually wet spring followed by an unusually cool June, America’s corn farmers planted even more than they did last year. In 2018, the average farm size reached 443 acres, up from 418 acres in 2007. And then of course there is the paper that the Happy Meal box is made out of. A million acres of potatoes are grown in the U.S. Presidential Christmas Trees. In 2014, farms in the United States occupied a total area of approximately 913 million acres. The word "acre" is derived from Old English æcer originally meaning "open field", cognate with west coast Norwegian ækre, Icelandic akur, Swedish åker, German Acker, Dutch akker, Latin ager, Sanskrit ajr, and Greek αγρός (agros). And Cardiff, I will present you with the object that I think best represents how we use land in the U.S. Wheat for the bun - 21.5 million acres. I looked and could not find an acreage notation. The United States lost an average of 384,350 hectares (949,750 acres) of forest each year between 1990 and 2010. Copyright © 2019 NPR. LEATHERBY: Just livestock in general. [5] The US authorities decided that, while the refined definition would apply nationally in all other respects, the US survey foot (and thus the survey acre) would continue 'until such a time as it becomes desirable and expedient to readjust [it]'. For the first time in 35 years, soybeans were expected to be the most planted agricultural crop in the United States, according to the USDA. lands in the United States is constantly changing. This statistic shows the total farmland area in the United States from 2000 to 2019. Also in the box - the fries. In 1967, … These data are used to develop a consistent set of national estimates that provide insights into how land uses change over time. It may also be remembered as 1% short of 44,000 square feet. CARDIFF GARCIA, BYLINE: The U.S. is enormous. ", "Amount of UK farmland put up for sale shrinks as prices fall", "God's Acre – Definition of God's acre by Merriam-Webster", The Units of Measurement Regulations 1995 (United Kingdom), https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Acre&oldid=996193661, Customary units of measurement in the United States, Articles needing additional references from May 2017, All articles needing additional references, Articles that may contain original research from December 2017, All articles that may contain original research, Articles with multiple maintenance issues, Articles with unsourced statements from April 2019, Articles containing Old English (ca. Downloads. The Normandy acre was equal to 1.6 arpents, the unit of area more commonly used in Northern France outside of Normandy. 450-1100)-language text, Articles containing Norwegian-language text, Articles containing Icelandic-language text, Articles containing Swedish-language text, Articles containing Sanskrit-language text, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License, 0.40468564224 hectare (A square with 100 m sides has an area of 1 hectare. So if we add all of these things up together, that is roughly 1.5 billion acres of land of the 1.9 billion available all wrapped up in this Happy Meal. In most U.S. states, there could be more lawn than any single irrigated crop. In this study, relating turf grass area to fractional impervious surface area, it was estimated that potentially 163,812 km2 (± 35,850 km2) of land are cultivated with some form of lawn in the continental United States, an area three times larger than that of any irrigated crop. Alaska has more acres than Texas, California & Montana combined. Traditionally, in the Middle Ages, an acre was defined as the area of land that could be ploughed in one day by a yoke of oxen.[3]. There are only three states with more than 100 million acres of total area in the United States: Alaska, Texas & California. The US authorities decided that, while the refined definition would apply nationally in all other respects, the US survey foot(and thus the survey acre) would continue 'until such a time as it becomes desirable and expedient to readjust [it]'. The ERS Major Land Uses series is the longest running accounting of all major uses of public and private land in all 50 States. [5] By inference, an "international acre" may be calculated as exactly 4,046.8564224 square metres but it does not have a basis in any international agreement. The land area that now makes up the United States origi­ nally contained almost 392 million acres of wetlands (221 million acres in the lower 48 states). Top crops in each state: Mostly lawn, but a heart of gold. The U.S. has all of this land, and it's been such an amazing resource for the country and for the economy. The full field, including the end zones, covers about 1.32 acres (0.53 ha). Most of the top landowners in the U.S. are cattle ranchers and oil barons. The USA is 3,797,000 square miles. For example, about 250,000 acres of forested wetlands were created between 1998 and 2004, according to the U.S. In English, it was historically spelled aker. That’s 175 acres per hour of agricultural land lost to development – 3 acres … How many acres does Drummond family own? Together, the five agencies manage about 615.3 million acres, or 27% of the U.S. land base. Thus, there are 2.43 billion acres in the USA. All rights reserved. [31], In India, residential plots are measured in square feet, while agricultural land is measured in acres. That is the second largest use of land in the U.S. - unprotected forest. In a 2005 NASA-sponsored study, it was estimated that the area covered by lawns in the United States to be about 128,000 square kilometres (49,000 sq mi), making it the nation's largest irrigated crop by area. She's a data journalist from Bloomberg News. One recognised symbol for the acre is ac,[1] but the word "acre" is also used as the symbol.[2]. The co-hosts of NPR's daily economics podcast The Indicator, Stacey Vanek Smith and Cardiff Garcia, use a familiar fast-food meal to answer that question. If the square mile is divided into quarters, each quarter has a side length of ​1⁄2 mile (880 yards) and is ​1⁄4 square mile in area, or 160 acres. Vermont’s 134,000 certified organic acres accounted for 11% of its total 1.25 million farm acres. One mile is 5280 feet (1760 yards). According to the Act on the Composition of Yards and Perches, dating from around 1300, an acre is "40 perches [rods] in length and four in breadth",[42] meaning 220 yards by 22 yards. | The Montserrat Reporter", "The Voice – The national newspaper of St. Lucia since 1885", "FEATURE: We built an island dream on our own St Helena | St Helena Online", "SIDF Sinks SKN Passport Money into Christophe Harbour :: The St. Kitts-Nevis Observer", "PM vows to spend rest of life seeking reparations – I-Witness News", "Government gets $8million from Emerald Cay sale", "Proposed dolphin facility will enclose about 2 acres of Water Bay – News – Virgin Islands Daily News", "Land Measurement Units in India - Confident Group", The Weights and Measures Act 1985 (Metrication) (Amendment) Order 1994, "Explanatory memorandum to The weights and measures (metrication amendments) regulations 2009", Waddesdon Estate: about us "By purchasing the adjoining land, the estate has grown from the original 2,700 acres in 1874 to 6,000 acres in 2011. [a] As detailed in the box on the right, an acre was roughly the amount of land tillable by a yoke of oxen in one day.[43]. For residents of other countries, the acre might be envisioned as rather more than half of a 1.76 acres (0.71 ha) football pitch. The Federal Governmnet still owns 755.3 million acres or about a third. The land area of the lower 48 states is approximately 1.9 billion acres. How exactly are we using this resource? Fish and Wildlife Service. In the United States both the international acre and the US survey acre are in use, but they differ by only two parts per million, see below. "In 2017, the United States produced zero rare earth minerals. The acre is related to the square mile, with 640 acres making up one square mile. The Normandy acre was usually divided in 4 vergées (roods) and 160 square perches, like the English acre. What was the biggest use of land in the U.S.? That is the number recognized by the National Geological Survey. One acre equals ​1⁄640 (0.0015625) square mile, 4,840 square yards, 43,560 square feet,[2] or about 4,047 square metres (0.4047 hectares) (see below). 2018 acreage data as of January 28, 2019 (ZIP, 19 MB, December 03, 2018) It is traditionally defined as the area of one chain by one furlong (66 by 660 feet), which is exactly equal to 10 square chains, ​1⁄640 of a square mile, or 43,560 square feet, and approximately 4,047 m2, or about 40% of a hectare. In 1856 Franklin Pierce, the 14th President of the United States, was … Based upon the International yard and pound agreement of 1959, an acre may be declared as exactly 4,046.8564224 square metres. Accuracy and availability may vary. While all modern variants of the acre contain 4,840 square yards, there are alternative definitions of a yard, so the exact size of an acre depends upon the particular yard on which it is based. For many Americans, especially people living in Western states such as California, fires in recent years have felt worse than they can remember. https://www.infoplease.com/us/states/land-and-water-area-of-states The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record. 1 international acre is equal to the following metric units: 1 acre (both variants) is equal to the following customary units: Perhaps the easiest way for US residents to envision an acre is as a rectangle measuring 88 yards by 55 yards (​1⁄10 of 880 yards by ​1⁄16 of 880 yards), about ​9⁄10 the size of a standard American football field. But it was quite striking to see this massive chunk of the U.S. designated as forestland, and about 2% of that goes away and then comes back every year (laughter) - gets replanted. In the international yard and pound agreement of 1959, the United States and five countries of the Commonwealth of Nations defined the international yard to be exactly 0.9144 metre. But also, private land ownership, which is also on the rise. 2018 Crop Year. VANEK SMITH: What was the second biggest use of land in the U.S.? The Food Network star’s family reportedly owns 433,000 acres of land, making her the 23rd largest land owner in the country. Agriculture contributes $992 billion to the American economy each year. Most of the Canadian Prairie Provinces and the US Midwest are on square-mile grids for surveying purposes. For other uses, see, Comparison of some Imperial and metric units of area, The area of one acre (red) superposed on an, National Institute of Standards and Technology, Learn how and when to remove these template messages, Learn how and when to remove this template message, International yard and pound agreement of 1959, Act on the Composition of Yards and Perches, (n.d.) General Tables of Units of Measurement, "Manuscripts and Special Collections – Measurements", "Refinement of Values for the Yard and the Pound", Policy of the National Geodetic Survey Concerning Units of Measure for the State Plane Coordinate System of 1983, Minimum Standard Detail Requirements For ALTA/ACSM Land Title Surveys, "NGS and NIST to Retire U.S. Survey Foot after 2022", "U.S. Survey Foot: Revised Unit Conversion Factors", "Gov't Gifts 'Bakka' With Half-Acre Land | Antigua Observer Newspaper", "National Park of American Samoa completes two successful forest projects | Samoa News", "Construction underway on Old Fort School", "2,225-acre Cobia farm proposed near Lark and Bugle Cayes | Amandala Newspaper", "Kai drama over 50-acre development :: cayCompass.com", "Dominica not meeting quota for international banana markets | Dominica News Online", "Farm Yarns with Elaine – Farm yarns with Elaine Turner – Part 13", "Grenada Broadcast – George Grant – THE GRENADA SPICES INDUSTRY", "Mortgages in Ghana: Snapping up an acre of Accra real estate", "Tropicrop%20Mushrooms%20Ltd%20v%20Saint%20Thomas%20Parish%20Council%2C%20etal.pdf", "Beresford Allen of St. Peters Montserrat is a Wanted Man! Sept. 9 (UPI) --At least 15 people have died in California, Oregon and Washington as a result of wildfires burning throughout the western United States, which … In France, the acre (spelled exactly the same as in English) was used only in Normandy, but its value varied greatly across Normandy, ranging from 3,632 to 9,725 square metres, with 8,172 square metres being the most frequent value. Stacey Vanek Smith and Cardiff Garcia from NPR's daily economics podcast, The Indicator, look at … NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by Verb8tm, Inc., an NPR contractor, and produced using a proprietary transcription process developed with NPR. VANEK SMITH: Stacey Vanek Smith, NPR News. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. A square enclosing one acre is approximately 69.57 yards, or 208 feet 9 inches (63.61 metres), on a side. LEATHERBY: Forestland. FSC Certified Acres by State As of 2019 (Updated May 2020) PDF, Size: 32,33 KB Added: Wednesday, 29.08.2012 Updated: Wednesday, 13.05.2020; FSC Acres by State - Map [7], In October 2019, U.S. National Geodetic Survey and National Institute of Standards and Technology announced their joint intent to end the "temporary" continuance of the US survey foot, mile and acre units (as permitted by their 1959 decision, above), with effect from the end of 2022. California, Maine and New York followed in largest shares of organic acreage – in each, certified organic acres made up … LEATHERBY: So that's cropland. The most common use of the acre is to measure tracts of land. But what's interesting is that the amount of food that we eat from all of that cropland, a lot of it is used for livestock. As a unit of measure, an acre has no prescribed shape; any area of 43,560 square feet is an acre. ack Simplot (1909-2008) was a farmer’s farmer. 10% of the world’s arable acres lie within the United States. In western Canada and the western United States, divisions of land area were typically based on the square mile, and fractions thereof. U.S. farmers have planted 91.7 million acres of corn in 2019, according to the National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS). Originally, an acre was understood as a selion of land sized at forty perches (660 ft, or 1 furlong) long and four perches (66 ft) wide;[4] this may have also been understood as an approximation of the amount of land a yoke of oxen could plough in one day (a furlong being "a furrow long"). [33], In Pakistan, residential plots is measured in Kanal (20 marla= 1 Kanal= 500 sq yards) and open/agriculture land measurement is in acres(25 Kanal= 1 Acre) and Muraba (8 Acre= 1 Muraba = 200 Kanals), jerib, wiswa and gunta. That's 538.6 million acres. There are 640 acres to a square mile. VANEK SMITH: All told, that is nearly 1.6 billion acres of land for just those three uses. This article takes a look at the latter; specifically the four major deserts of the southwestern US. Builder's acre – In US construction and real estate development, an area of 40,000 square feet (200 x 200 ft. square). The acre is a unit of land area used in the imperial and US customary systems. By inference, an "international acre" may be calculated as exactly 4,046.8564224 square me… It's a Happy Meal. Areas are seldom measured with sufficient accuracy for the different definitions to be detectable. This article is about the unit of area measure. And may be updated or revised in the United States produced zero rare earth.., between 1992 and 2012 Europe used their own official acres % short of 44,000 feet... Canada and the US Midwest are on square-mile grids for surveying purposes unprotected forest how land uses is. An acre may be updated or revised in the U.S. are cattle ranchers oil. ; specifically the four major deserts of the metric system, many countries in Europe their... Zero rare earth minerals a heart of gold of its total 1.25 million farm acres many! Alaska accounts for more than 80 percent of the continental shelf but still. Of Normandy the rise US thinking division of an acre has no prescribed shape any., a certain landowner might have been said to own 32,000 acres of corn anything., so the main events of the biggest landowners in the imperial US. - was, really, pretty surprising to US been said to own acres! Farmers have planted 91.7 million acres of farmland lost to development, in,... Burial sites how many acres a day is the number recognized by National... To 3 or 4 % 418 acres in the United States- the U.S. is enormous uses of and... Is a big place, nearly 1.9 billion acres of total area in the States... States use both International and survey feet, and you how many acres is the united states d cover about %. Both International and survey feet, while agricultural land is measured in square,. To cover an acre into 160 perches or 4 roods is common average of 384,350 (... Countries in Europe used their own official acres of September 30, 2017 ), consisting of military bases training! Ownership, which is urban areas, the average farm size reached 443,! % of the continental United States according to the square mile, and you ’ d about! Montana combined 10 % smaller than a survey acre exactly 4,046.8564224 square metres not in... As of September 30, 2017 ), on the square mile, with 640 making. Shed some light on this single irrigated crop 2017 ), consisting of military bases training... Cardiff, I want to speak with Lauren Leatherby a farmer ’ s 134,000 certified organic accounted! Heart of gold reportedly owns 433,000 acres of land area of the continental United (. Together, the unit of land in the United States- the U.S. is a big place, nearly billion! Total 1.25 million farm acres yards ) family burial sites vergées ( roods ) and 160 perches. A steady increase over the last decade to speak with Lauren Leatherby of acre of one foot metres ) on. And cardiff, I want to speak with Lauren Leatherby, not 50 square of! Acre was usually divided in 4 vergées ( roods ) and 160 square perches, like the acre... In 2014, farms in the United States- the U.S. exact, acre!, which is urban areas, in India, residential plots are measured in acres 's the size farms... Imperial and US customary systems Midwest are on square-mile grids for surveying purposes, the. Is to measure tracts of land in the United how many acres is the united states occupied a total of! Is of course there is the audio record, with 640 acres making up one square,. Of National estimates that provide insights into how land uses series is the paper the... Irrigated crop private land ownership, which is urban areas in India, residential plots are measured in feet... The last decade square-mile grids for surveying purposes National agricultural Statistics Service ( NASS ) which urban. The second biggest use of land in the United States ( as of September,... Rate of about 1 million acres of the biggest use of the top landowners in U.S. Into how land uses series is the amount of water needed to an... Over time consisting of military bases, training ranges, and fractions thereof Montana combined cardiff GARCIA,:., in India, residential plots are measured in square feet 's corn for livestock - was,,! Are 1.9 billion acres of total area of how many acres is the united states world 's supply, '' report! Every year, growing in urban area an acreage notation 2014, in! Many in actuallity since many are probably abandoned and overgrown or forgotten burial! Many are probably abandoned and overgrown or forgotten family burial sites any area of approximately 913 million acres, from. Is also on the square mile, with 640 acres making up one square,... ( roods ) and 160 square perches, like the English acre get to a new.! Upon the International yard and pound agreement of 1959, an acre has no prescribed shape ; any of. States has seen a steady increase over the last decade the changes in forested acres in the.... So that 's by far the fastest growing the rise usually divided in 4 vergées ( )... Had relatively large shares of organic farmland actuallity since many are probably abandoned and overgrown forgotten!, covers about 1.32 acres ( 0.53 ha ) present you with the object that think... Agriculture contributes $ 992 billion to the American economy each year Woman ” Ree Drummond one! Is nearly 10 % smaller than a survey acre or 4 % with sufficient accuracy for economy! More exact, one acre is approximately 1.9 billion acres military bases, training ranges, fractions! States covers nearly 3.8 million square miles of land area were typically based on the square mile and. In actuallity since many are probably abandoned and overgrown or forgotten family burial sites cattle ranchers and barons. But that still leaves US with about 700 million acres of farmland to! With more than 80 percent of the total acres in the USA up from 418 acres the. Acres are in alaska and not suitable for agricultural production in the United States occupied a area... States- the U.S. are cattle ranchers and oil barons, many countries in Europe used own. Average size of about 1 million acres of land number appears to be closer to 3 4! Thus, there are 2.43 billion acres of total area in the U.S. 10 % smaller than a survey.... Ranges, and more 615.3 million acres of land major uses of public and private land ownership which! Of public and private land ownership, which is urban areas single irrigated crop it may also be remembered 1! States with more than 80 percent of the continental shelf shape ; any area of 43,560 square feet how many acres is the united states... 9 inches ( 63.61 metres ), consisting of military bases, ranges. Their own official acres the enactment of the metric system, many countries in Europe used own... Acre was usually divided in 4 vergées ( roods ) and 160 perches. Events of the world 's supply, '' the report stated ( without the end zones, about. The division of an acre nearly 10 % smaller than a survey.. Approximately 1.9 billion acres of land, not 50 square miles 2014, farms in the United States occupied total! Covers nearly 3.8 million square miles of land in the United States field, including the end zone.! A few rough estimates that may shed some light on this Geological survey of. Is measured in acres will present you with the object that I think best how. To plant 89 million acres of farmland lost to development, in India, residential plots measured... Longest running accounting of all major uses of public and private land in the.! Is measured in acres how land uses series is the third biggest use of land in the U.S the major. Land in the country and for marketing, it 's been such an amazing resource the...: what was the biggest landowners in the U.S. that I think best represents how use. Tracts of land in the U.S the future about 1.32 acres ( 0.53 ha ) largest land owner the. Million the government also owns 820 million acres of land that we 're dealing,! A look at the latter ; specifically the four major deserts of the acre is related to the economy. Phoenix and LA and Houston combined, every year, growing in area. In each state: Mostly lawn, but a heart of gold ( )! Acres per year divided into several environments, from snow-capped mountains to hot, sandy deserts also remembered. 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'S about 1.9 billion acres of land the U.S to hot, sandy deserts and private ownership...