OECD members - Land area (sq. km)

The value for Land area (sq. km) in OECD members was 35,511,890 as of 2021. As the graph below shows, over the past 60 years this indicator reached a maximum value of 35,515,050 in 2003 and a minimum value of 35,496,180 in 2012.

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 35,515,020
1962 35,515,010
1963 35,515,020
1964 35,515,020
1965 35,515,010
1966 35,515,000
1967 35,514,980
1968 35,514,980
1969 35,514,980
1970 35,514,970
1971 35,514,960
1972 35,514,860
1973 35,514,860
1974 35,514,820
1975 35,514,610
1976 35,514,530
1977 35,514,410
1978 35,514,410
1979 35,514,380
1980 35,514,200
1981 35,514,280
1982 35,514,060
1983 35,514,020
1984 35,512,540
1985 35,512,440
1986 35,512,540
1987 35,512,450
1988 35,512,440
1989 35,512,440
1990 35,512,440
1991 35,512,440
1992 35,512,480
1993 35,512,460
1994 35,512,450
1995 35,512,440
1996 35,512,330
1997 35,512,220
1998 35,512,190
1999 35,512,150
2000 35,514,350
2001 35,514,100
2002 35,514,630
2003 35,515,050
2004 35,514,770
2005 35,514,650
2006 35,514,020
2007 35,514,120
2008 35,499,140
2009 35,500,010
2010 35,501,500
2011 35,501,230
2012 35,496,180
2013 35,497,540
2014 35,498,140
2015 35,497,630
2016 35,507,740
2017 35,507,720
2018 35,511,890
2019 35,511,890
2020 35,511,890
2021 35,511,890

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