High income - Surface area (sq. km)

The value for Surface area (sq. km) in High income was 37,095,240 as of 2018. As the graph below shows, over the past 57 years this indicator reached a maximum value of 37,095,240 in 2018 and a minimum value of 36,546,310 in 1980.

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

Source: Food and Agriculture Organization, electronic files and web site.

See also:

Year Value
1961 36,546,400
1962 36,546,400
1963 36,546,400
1964 36,546,400
1965 36,546,400
1966 36,546,400
1967 36,546,400
1968 36,546,400
1969 36,546,400
1970 36,546,400
1971 36,546,400
1972 36,546,400
1973 36,546,400
1974 36,546,400
1975 36,546,400
1976 36,546,400
1977 36,546,400
1978 36,546,400
1979 36,546,400
1980 36,546,310
1981 36,546,310
1982 36,546,310
1983 36,546,310
1984 36,546,310
1985 36,546,310
1986 36,546,310
1987 36,546,310
1988 36,546,310
1989 36,546,310
1990 36,546,310
1991 36,547,230
1992 36,547,250
1993 36,547,270
1994 36,547,280
1995 36,547,310
1996 36,547,400
1997 36,616,150
1998 36,616,080
1999 36,616,080
2000 36,618,040
2001 36,618,430
2002 36,618,800
2003 36,619,200
2004 36,619,000
2005 36,619,060
2006 36,619,400
2007 36,619,510
2008 36,819,140
2009 36,819,350
2010 36,819,680
2011 36,819,660
2012 36,848,600
2013 37,093,700
2014 37,093,710
2015 37,093,760
2016 37,094,600
2017 37,094,450
2018 37,095,240

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.

Aggregation method: Sum

Periodicity: Annual

Classification

Topic: Environment Indicators

Sub-Topic: Land use