Latin America & Caribbean (excluding high income) | 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
Latin America & Caribbean (excluding high income)
Records
63
Source
Latin America & Caribbean (excluding high income) | Surface area (sq. km)
1960
1961 18286490
1962 18286490
1963 18286490
1964 18286490
1965 18286490
1966 18286490
1967 18286490
1968 18286490
1969 18286490
1970 18286490
1971 18286490
1972 18286490
1973 18286490
1974 18286490
1975 18286490
1976 18286490
1977 18286490
1978 18286490
1979 18286490
1980 18286490
1981 18286490
1982 18286490
1983 18286490
1984 18286490
1985 18286490
1986 18286490
1987 18286490
1988 18286490
1989 18286490
1990 18286490
1991 18286490
1992 18286490
1993 18286490
1994 18286490
1995 18286490
1996 18286490
1997 18286490
1998 18259300
1999 18259300
2000 18259300
2001 18259300
2002 18259300
2003 18259300
2004 18259300
2005 18259300
2006 18259300
2007 18259300
2008 18259300
2009 18259300
2010 18259292
2011 18259292
2012 18259290
2013 18259291
2014 18259286
2015 18259286
2016 18259286
2017 18259286
2018 18259287
2019 18357456.31
2020 18356325.36
2021 18356325.36
2022

Latin America & Caribbean (excluding high income) | 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
Latin America & Caribbean (excluding high income)
Records
63
Source