North America - Land area (sq. km)

The value for Land area (sq. km) in North America was 18,113,060 as of 2021. As the graph below shows, over the past 60 years this indicator reached a maximum value of 18,127,560 in 2007 and a minimum value of 18,113,060 in 2008.

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 18,124,600
1962 18,124,600
1963 18,124,600
1964 18,124,600
1965 18,124,600
1966 18,124,600
1967 18,124,600
1968 18,124,600
1969 18,124,600
1970 18,124,600
1971 18,124,600
1972 18,124,600
1973 18,124,600
1974 18,124,600
1975 18,124,600
1976 18,124,600
1977 18,124,600
1978 18,124,600
1979 18,124,600
1980 18,124,600
1981 18,124,600
1982 18,124,600
1983 18,124,600
1984 18,124,600
1985 18,124,600
1986 18,124,600
1987 18,124,600
1988 18,124,600
1989 18,124,600
1990 18,124,600
1991 18,124,600
1992 18,124,600
1993 18,124,600
1994 18,124,600
1995 18,124,600
1996 18,124,600
1997 18,124,600
1998 18,124,600
1999 18,124,600
2000 18,127,560
2001 18,127,560
2002 18,127,560
2003 18,127,560
2004 18,127,560
2005 18,127,560
2006 18,127,560
2007 18,127,560
2008 18,113,060
2009 18,113,060
2010 18,113,060
2011 18,113,060
2012 18,113,060
2013 18,113,060
2014 18,113,060
2015 18,113,060
2016 18,113,060
2017 18,113,060
2018 18,113,060
2019 18,113,060
2020 18,113,060
2021 18,113,060

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