Square Yards to US Survey Acres (yd² to ac (US))

1 square yard equals 0.0002066107438 US survey acres (rounded).

1 square yard = 0.0002066107438 US survey acres

How to convert square yards to US survey acres

To convert square yards to US survey acres, multiply the number of square yards by 0.0002066107438. The factor is rounded to 10 significant digits. To go the other way, multiply US survey acres by 4,840.01936 (rounded).

US survey acres = square yards × 0.0002066107438

Example: 10 square yards = 0.002066107438 US survey acres.

About these units

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

US Survey Acre (ac (US))

US land surveyHistorical unit (no longer in standard use)

43,560 square US survey feet (about 4,046.873 m²), slightly larger than the international acre. Used in US land records until 2022.

Two acres existed side by side in the United States for decades, separated by a tiny difference in the definition of the foot. Both contain 43,560 square feet, but the international acre uses the foot fixed in 1959 from a yard of exactly 0.9144 meter, giving 4,046.8564224 square meters. The survey acre keeps the older relation set by the 1893 Mendenhall Order, in which one meter is exactly 39.37 inches, giving about 4,046.873 square meters.

The gap is only about 0.016 square meter, roughly 160 square centimeters, but across a large state it adds up to real discrepancies, which is why surveyors held on to the old figure for land records. In October 2019 the National Geodetic Survey and NIST announced that the temporary continued use of the survey foot, mile and acre would end at the close of 2022, and the international units are meant to replace them. The acre itself began as the land a farmer with oxen could plough in a day, and its name comes from an Old Norse word for cultivated land.

1 US survey acre = 4,046.87261 square meters (approximately).

Sources: Wikipedia: Acre; NIST SP 811 Appendix B.8 (conversion factors)

Related conversions

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