Square Kilometers to Square Millimeters (km² to mm²)

1 square kilometer equals 1,000,000,000,000 square millimeters exactly.

1 square kilometer = 1,000,000,000,000 square millimeters

How to convert square kilometers to square millimeters

To convert square kilometers to square millimeters, multiply the number of square kilometers by 1,000,000,000,000. This factor is exact. To go the other way, multiply square millimeters by 1×10⁻¹².

square millimeters = square kilometers × 1,000,000,000,000

Example: 10 square kilometers = 10,000,000,000,000 square millimeters.

About these units

Square Kilometer (km²)

Metric (SI)Current unit

One million square meters (100 hectares). Used for the area of cities, countries and lakes.

Metric land measure took a surprisingly long time to settle on the kilometer. The meter was defined in 1799, yet people initially preferred the myriameter, 10,000 meters, and the French phrase myriamètres par heure was still in print in 1802. The Netherlands adopted the kilometer in 1817 under the name mijl. Once the kilometer was established, the square kilometer followed naturally as the unit for areas too large to count comfortably in hectares or square meters.

One square kilometer is 1,000,000 square meters, or 100 hectares, about 0.3861 square miles or 247.1 acres. A useful picture comes from history: many medieval European cities were enclosed by walls around roughly a square kilometer, with Delft at about 0.9 km² and Lucca at about 1.09 km². A standard 18-hole golf course of 6,000 meters needs about 0.8 km². The symbol km² means the square of a kilometer, not a thousand square meters. The planned Square Kilometre Array radio telescope takes its name from the collecting area it aims for.

1 square kilometer = 1,000,000 square meters (exactly).

Sources: Wikipedia: Square kilometre; Wikipedia: Kilometres per hour

Square Millimeter (mm²)

Metric (SI)Current unit

A square one millimeter on a side. Used for the cross-section of wires and small parts.

Gauss gets the credit for putting the millimeter at the base of a scientific measuring system. His 1832 proposal for absolute units used the millimeter, milligram and second, although the centimeter-based CGS system later won out among scientists. The square millimeter is a one-thousandth-by-one-thousandth square of a meter, so it takes a million of them to make a square meter, and it has no famous inventor of its own.

Electricians know it best. Wire and cable sizes are given as the cross-sectional area of the copper conductor, and the standard sizes listed for UK domestic wiring are 1, 1.5, 2.5, 4, 6 and 10 mm². Twin and earth cable of 2.5 mm² typically serves sockets on a 16 A radial or 32 A ring circuit, 1 mm² serves lighting on a 6 A breaker, and 4 mm² feeds a cooker or shower. Conductor size depends on current capacity and allowed voltage drop, not on voltage alone. One square inch is exactly 645.16 mm², so small parts in either system compare easily.

1 square millimeter = 0.000001 square meters (exactly).

Sources: Wikipedia: Electrical wiring in the United Kingdom; Wikipedia: Centimetre-gram-second system of units; Wikipedia: Square metre

Related conversions

See all area units.