Sections to Square Miles (section to mi²)
1 section equals 1.000004 square miles (rounded).
How to convert sections to square miles
To convert sections to square miles, multiply the number of sections by 1.000004. The factor is rounded to 10 significant digits. To go the other way, multiply square miles by 0.999996 (rounded).
square miles = sections × 1.000004
Example: 10 sections = 10.00004 square miles.
About these units
Section (section)
One square US survey mile (640 acres). The basic unit of the US Public Land Survey System.
Under the Land Ordinance of 1785, territory outside the existing states could not be sold or settled until it had been surveyed, and the basic parcel of that grid was the section: a square mile, about 2.6 square kilometers, holding 640 acres. Thirty-six of them make a township. Numbering runs back and forth in a snaking pattern, starting with section 1 in the northeast corner and ending with section 36 in the southeast.
Sections were meant to be cut into smaller pieces. A quarter section is 160 acres, and the Homestead Act of 1862 let a settler claim that amount after living on it and improving it for five years. Quarter-quarters of 40 acres are still used in legal descriptions. Section 16 was set aside to fund local schools, and in several western states section 36 was added too. In practice few sections are perfect squares, because the curve of the Earth, compass errors and rough terrain bent the lines, and the original survey monuments still take legal precedence over later measurement.
1 section = 2,589,998.47 square meters (approximately).
Sources: Wikipedia: Section (United States land surveying); Wikipedia: Public Land Survey System
Square Mile (mi²)
640 acres or about 2.59 km². Used for the area of cities, states and countries in the US and UK.
A thousand Roman paces, mille passus, became the mile, and under Elizabeth I Parliament fixed the statute mile at eight furlongs, or 5,280 feet, in place of the older Roman-based value. The square mile inherits that length. Its most famous use came in the United States: the Land Ordinance of 1785 started the Public Land Survey System so that western land could be surveyed and sold to pay war debts, beginning with the Seven Ranges in eastern Ohio.
In that system a section is roughly one square mile, or 640 acres, and a township is 36 sections in a square six miles on a side. One square mile is nearly 2.59 million square meters. Chicago's Midway International Airport, at about 650 acres, covers roughly 1.02 square miles. Beware the phrase mile square: a region 20 miles square has 400 square miles, but so does a rectangle 10 by 40 miles. The US survey version of the mile was retired from 1 January 2023, but the international square mile remains the unit for cities, states and countries in the US and UK.
1 square mile = 2,589,988.11 square meters (approximately).
Sources: Wikipedia: Square mile; Wikipedia: Public Land Survey System; Wikipedia: Mile
Related conversions
- Square miles to sections (reverse)
- Sections to square meters
- Sections to square kilometers
- Sections to hectares
- Sections to square inches
- Sections to square feet
- Sections to square yards
- Sections to acres
- Square meters to square miles
- Square kilometers to square miles
- Hectares to square miles
- Square inches to square miles
- Square feet to square miles
- Square yards to square miles
- Acres to square miles
- Square centimeters to square miles
- Square millimeters to square miles
- Tsubo to square miles
- Pyeong to square miles
- Rai (Thai) to square miles
See all area units.