Arpents to Hectares (arpent to ha)

1 arpent (North American) equals 0.341889 hectares exactly.

1 arpent (North American) = 0.341889 hectares

How to convert arpents to hectares

To convert arpents to hectares, multiply the number of arpents by 0.341889. This factor is exact. To go the other way, multiply hectares by 2.924925926 (rounded).

hectares = arpents × 0.341889

Example: 10 arpents = 3.41889 hectares.

Approximate value. Standards for the arpent (North American) varied by place and period, so this converter uses the most commonly cited value. Treat results as estimates, not exact figures.

About these units

Arpent (North American) (arpent)

French (Ancien Régime)Historical unit (no longer in standard use)Approximate value

About 3,419 m² (0.845 acre), a square of 180 French feet. Still used in Louisiana and Quebec land records. The older Paris arpent was larger, about 5,107 m².

Arpent probably descends from the Late Latin arepennis, half a jugerum, which may itself trace to a Gaulish word for the end of a field. French surveyors used it for land and forests, and the size changed from province to province. Wikipedia describes the Paris arpent as 220 French feet on a side, about 71.5 m, which gives roughly 5,107 square meters.

The smaller arpent of 180 French feet, about 58.5 m on a side, gives 32,400 square French feet, near 3,419 square meters or 0.845 acre. Wikipedia files this version under North America, where Louisiana grants usually fixed river frontage in arpents with plots 40 or more deep. Some states round it differently, to 0.84628 acre in Louisiana and 0.8507 acre in Arkansas and Missouri.

The figure used here is 3,418.9 square meters. Mauritius and Seychelles use yet another arpent, near 4,221 square meters, and Quebec land records still use the term.

1 arpent (North American) = 3,418.89 square meters (approximately).

Sources: Wikipedia: Arpent

Hectare (ha)

Metric (SI)Current unit

10,000 square meters (2.471 acres). The standard unit for land and agricultural areas outside the US.

Hecto plus are: the name was coined in French, and are itself comes from the Latin area, meaning an open space. The French law of 18 Germinal, Year III (7 April 1795) defined the are as 100 square meters, and the hectare followed as 100 ares, or 10,000 square meters. The unit is therefore a product of the original French metric reforms rather than of later SI work, which is one reason its official status has always been slightly awkward.

When the SI was set up in 1960 the are was not recognized, and the hectare was classed as a non-SI unit accepted for use with it. In practice it is the standard unit for land ownership, planning and agriculture in the European Union, the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and South Africa, while the United States and Myanmar stay with the acre. A hectare is a square 100 meters on each side, about the size of Trafalgar Square, and equals roughly 2.47 acres. One hundred of them make a square kilometer.

1 hectare = 10,000 square meters (exactly).

Sources: Wikipedia: Hectare; Wikipedia: Are (unit); NIST Guide to the SI, Appendix B.8: conversion factors

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