Square Meters to Square Yards (m² to yd²)
1 square meter equals 1.195990046 square yards (rounded).
How to convert square meters to square yards
To convert square meters to square yards, multiply the number of square meters by 1.195990046. The factor is rounded to 10 significant digits. To go the other way, multiply square yards by 0.83612736.
square yards = square meters × 1.195990046
Example: 10 square meters = 11.95990046 square yards.
About these units
Square Meter (m²)
The SI unit of area: a square one meter on each side. Used for floor areas and property sizes in most of the world.
Squaring the meter was built into the metric system from the start. The French law of 18 Germinal, Year III (7 April 1795) defined the are, the land unit that gave the hectare its name, as exactly 100 square meters, so the square meter was already the foundation of metric land measure. Nobody is credited with inventing it as a separate unit. It is simply the area of a square one meter on each side, and any SI prefix that works for the meter works for it, with the prefix squared along with the unit.
That squaring catches people out: a square kilometer is one million square meters, not one thousand. Since 1983 the meter has been defined through the speed of light, so the square meter is tied to a constant of nature as well as to the second. A hectare, about the area of Trafalgar Square in London, is 10,000 square meters. In everyday terms one square meter is about 10.76 square feet. Unicode has a compatibility character for it, but the recommended way to write it is the plain superscript two: m².
The square meter is the reference unit for area on this site.
Sources: Wikipedia: Square metre; Wikipedia: Are (unit); NIST: the meter and the SI redefinition
Square Yard (yd²)
9 square feet (0.8361 m²). Used for carpet, turf and land in the UK and India (where it is called a gaj).
Branches and rods lie behind this unit. The word yard comes from Old English gerd or gyrd, meaning a staff or measuring rod, and it first appears in the late seventh-century laws of Ine of Wessex, where a yard of land was a tax unit. Where its length came from is uncertain: pacing, the cubit and the arm of King Henry I have all been suggested. A square yard is simply a square of that length on each side.
After the 1959 agreement among six countries fixed the yard at exactly 0.9144 meter, the square yard became exactly 9 square feet, 1,296 square inches or about 0.836 m². It is used across the English-speaking world, notably in the United States, United Kingdom, Canada, India and Pakistan. In northern India it is called a gaj, and in Pakistan a gaz, and house plots there are often quoted in it. In the US and UK the yard, divided into eighths, is also how cloth is bought, so the square yard suits flooring and fabric in the same breath.
1 square yard = 0.83612736 square meters (exactly).
Sources: Wikipedia: Square yard; Wikipedia: Yard; NIST Guide to the SI, Appendix B.8: conversion factors
Related conversions
- Square yards to square meters (reverse)
- Square meters to square kilometers
- Square meters to hectares
- Square meters to square inches
- Square meters to square feet
- Square meters to acres
- Square meters to square miles
- Square meters to square centimeters
- Square meters to square millimeters
- Square meters to tsubo
- Square meters to pyeong
- Square meters to rai (Thai)
- Square meters to barns
- Square kilometers to square yards
- Hectares to square yards
- Square inches to square yards
- Square feet to square yards
- Acres to square yards
- Square miles to square yards
- Square centimeters to square yards
- Square millimeters to square yards
- Tsubo to square yards
- Pyeong to square yards
- Rai (Thai) to square yards
- Barns to square yards
See all area units.