IDA blend | Surface area (sq. km)

Surface area is a country's total area, including areas under inland bodies of water and some coastal waterways. 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. 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 | Surface area (sq. km)
1960
1961 4457950
1962 4457950
1963 4457950
1964 4457950
1965 4457950
1966 4457950
1967 4457950
1968 4457950
1969 4457950
1970 4457950
1971 4457950
1972 4457950
1973 4457950
1974 4457950
1975 4457950
1976 4457950
1977 4457950
1978 4457950
1979 4457950
1980 4457950
1981 4457950
1982 4457950
1983 4457950
1984 4457950
1985 4457950
1986 4457950
1987 4457950
1988 4457950
1989 4457950
1990 4457950
1991 4457950
1992 4457950
1993 4457950
1994 4457950
1995 4457950
1996 4457950
1997 4457950
1998 4457950
1999 4457950
2000 4454653
2001 4454653
2002 4454653
2003 4454653
2004 4454653
2005 4454653
2006 4454653
2007 4454653
2008 4454653
2009 4454653
2010 4454653
2011 4454653
2012 4454653
2013 4454653
2014 4454653
2015 4459474
2016 4459474
2017 4459474
2018 4459474
2019 4459474
2020 4459474
2021 4459474
2022

IDA blend | Surface area (sq. km)

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