IDA only - Land area (sq. km)

The value for Land area (sq. km) in IDA only was 20,604,990 as of 2021. As the graph below shows, over the past 60 years this indicator reached a maximum value of 20,617,620 in 2011 and a minimum value of 20,489,180 in 1994.

Definition: Land area is a country's total area, excluding area under inland water bodies, national claims to continental shelf, and exclusive economic zones. In most cases the definition of inland water bodies includes major rivers and lakes.

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

See also:

Year Value
1961 20,596,880
1962 20,596,880
1963 20,596,880
1964 20,596,880
1965 20,596,880
1966 20,596,880
1967 20,596,880
1968 20,596,880
1969 20,596,880
1970 20,596,880
1971 20,596,880
1972 20,596,880
1973 20,596,880
1974 20,596,480
1975 20,596,220
1976 20,596,220
1977 20,596,220
1978 20,596,220
1979 20,596,220
1980 20,596,220
1981 20,596,220
1982 20,596,220
1983 20,596,220
1984 20,596,220
1985 20,596,220
1986 20,596,220
1987 20,596,220
1988 20,596,220
1989 20,596,220
1990 20,596,220
1991 20,597,100
1992 20,597,100
1993 20,496,100
1994 20,489,180
1995 20,489,180
1996 20,489,180
1997 20,489,180
1998 20,489,180
1999 20,489,180
2000 20,489,530
2001 20,489,530
2002 20,489,530
2003 20,489,340
2004 20,616,780
2005 20,616,780
2006 20,616,940
2007 20,616,980
2008 20,616,750
2009 20,616,740
2010 20,617,380
2011 20,617,620
2012 20,617,480
2013 20,617,420
2014 20,616,210
2015 20,616,270
2016 20,616,200
2017 20,615,890
2018 20,604,990
2019 20,604,990
2020 20,604,990
2021 20,604,990

Development Relevance: Land 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, land 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 does not include 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