World | 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
World
Records
63
Source
World | Surface area (sq. km)
1960
133974296.037 1961
133974296.037 1962
133974296.037 1963
133974296.037 1964
133974296.037 1965
133974296.037 1966
133974296.037 1967
133974296.037 1968
133974296.037 1969
133974296.037 1970
133974296.037 1971
133974296.037 1972
133974296.037 1973
133974296.037 1974
133974296.037 1975
133974296.037 1976
133972176.037 1977
133972176.037 1978
133974216.737 1979
133974206.737 1980
133974206.737 1981
133974206.737 1982
133974206.737 1983
133974206.737 1984
133974206.737 1985
133974206.737 1986
133972866.737 1987
133972876.737 1988
133972876.737 1989
133973546.737 1990
133973576.737 1991
133973626.737 1992
133973736.737 1993
133966823.737 1994
133966853.737 1995
133966933.737 1996
134035673.737 1997
134008413.737 1998
134008413.737 1999
134005397.737 2000
134005787.937 2001
134006212.937 2002
134006668.437 2003
134040792.351 2004
134042748.706 2005
134043053.667 2006
134043135.229 2007
134242621.172 2008
134240304.992 2009
134240578.781 2010
134240898.559 2011
134260457.063 2012
134617458.062 2013
134615534.898 2014
134623049.131 2015
134624250.83 2016
134627589.723 2017
134627209.182 2018
134725642.514 2019
134732038.315 2020
140486936.909 2021
2022
World | 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
World
Records
63
Source