Hectares to Square Rods (ha to sq rd)

1 hectare equals 395.3686103 square rods (rounded).

1 hectare = 395.3686103 square rods

How to convert hectares to square rods

To convert hectares to square rods, multiply the number of hectares by 395.3686103. The factor is rounded to 10 significant digits. To go the other way, multiply square rods by 0.002529285264.

square rods = hectares × 395.3686103

Example: 10 hectares = 3,953.686103 square rods.

About these units

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

Square Rod (sq rd)

US & ImperialTraditional unit (still used in some regions)

30.25 square yards (25.29 m²), also called a perch. 160 square rods make an acre.

Perch is the older name for this small square, and it traces back to the Roman pertica, a measuring pole. The word rod became the preferred surveyors' term in England, where land measurers carrying rods, poles or knotted cords were in demand after Henry VIII took over church estates in 1536. A square rod is the square on a rod of 16.5 feet, which works out to 272.25 square feet, or 30.25 square yards.

The odd-looking number makes sense through the acre. Edmund Gunter's 66-foot chain is four rods long, so a square chain holds 16 square rods, and ten square chains make an acre. That means 160 square rods fill an acre, and a rood holds 40. Metric equivalents are about 25.29 square meters, a little under the floor area of a small garage. Rods and perches turned up in deeds, tax records and plot descriptions for centuries, and a few English-speaking regions still quote small building plots in perches.

1 square rod = 25.29285264 square meters (exactly).

Sources: Wikipedia: Rod (unit); Wikipedia: Chain (unit); Wikipedia: Acre

Related conversions

See all area units.