Hectare
Comparison of Area units | SI base | | 1 m² | 1 m² | 1 m² |
| 1 ha | 1 hm² | 104 m² |
| 1 km² | 1 km² | 106 m² |
| non-SI comparisons |
|---|
| SI base |
|---|
| 2.471 acre | 1 ha | 104 m² |
| 107,639 ft² | 1 ha | 104 m² |
A
hectare (symbol
ha) is a unit of area, equal to 10,000 square meters, commonly used for measuring land area. Its base unit, the
are, was defined by older forms of the
metric system, but is not part of the modern metric system, the (SI). The
Comité International des Poids et Mesures classifies the hectare as a unit that, although it is not part of the International System of Units, is expected to continue in use indefinitely, having an exact definition in terms of an SI base unit.
1 hectare = 100 ares = 10,000 square metres = (100 metres)².
Thus a hectare is the area of a square plot of land where each side of the square is 100 metres, that is, a square hectometer.
The name is a contraction of the
SI prefix hecto +
are; a hectare is 100 ares.
The hectare is commonly used in many countries, especially in domains concerned with land planning and management such as
agriculture,
forestry, and
town planning where the use of square metres would be cumbersome and unnecessarily precise. In the
United States, the
acre is still generally used to describe area measurements in comparable situations.
One hectare is equivalent to:Metric
* 10 000
square metres = 100 metres × 100 metres (10 000
centiares)
* 100
ares
* 1 square hectometre (a square with sides 100 metres long)
* 1 hectare
* 10
decares
* 0.01 square kilometres
* 2.471 053 8
international acres
* 2.471 043 9
U.S. survey acres
* 107,639
square feet* 0.00386 102
square miles (
statute)
Other
* 15 mus (Chinese)
* 10
dunams (Middle East)
* 10
stremmata (Greece)
* 6.25
rai (Thai)
* 1 cho (Japanese)
*
Orders of magnitude*
conversion of units*
1 E4 m² for further comparisons
*
Official SI website: Table 6. Non-SI units accepted for use with the International System of Units 
