Square Rods to Square Yards (sq rd to yd²)

1 square rod equals 30.25 square yards exactly.

1 square rod = 30.25 square yards

How to convert square rods to square yards

To convert square rods to square yards, multiply the number of square rods by 30.25. This factor is exact. To go the other way, multiply square yards by 0.03305785124 (rounded).

square yards = square rods × 30.25

Example: 10 square rods = 302.5 square yards.

About these units

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

Square Yard (yd²)

US & ImperialCurrent unit

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

See all area units.