IDA blend | Land area (sq. km)

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. 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. Including areas of former states; for example, the areas of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) are counted in Russian Federationand other successor states.
Publisher
The World Bank
Origin
IDA blend
Records
63
Source
IDA blend | Land area (sq. km)
1960
1961 3943970
1962 3943970
1963 3943970
1964 3943970
1965 3943970
1966 3943970
1967 3943970
1968 3943970
1969 3943970
1970 3943970
1971 3943970
1972 3943970
1973 3943970
1974 3943970
1975 3943970
1976 3943970
1977 3943970
1978 3943970
1979 3943970
1980 3943970
1981 3943970
1982 3943970
1983 3943970
1984 3943970
1985 3943970
1986 3943970
1987 3943970
1988 3943970
1989 3943970
1990 3943970
1991 3943970
1992 4369370
1993 4369370
1994 4369370
1995 4369370
1996 4369370
1997 4369370
1998 4369370
1999 4369370
2000 4379935
2001 4379881
2002 4379881
2003 4379847
2004 4379823
2005 4379819
2006 4379820
2007 4379954
2008 4379937
2009 4379915
2010 4379862
2011 4379779
2012 4379770
2013 4379759
2014 4379759
2015 4384570
2016 4384561
2017 4384558
2018 4384557
2019 4384525
2020 4384620
2021 4384623
2022

IDA blend | Land area (sq. km)

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. 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. Including areas of former states; for example, the areas of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) are counted in Russian Federationand other successor states.
Publisher
The World Bank
Origin
IDA blend
Records
63
Source