Acres to hectares
Convert acres to hectares. Multiply by 0.40468564224 for an exact result, with tables for farmland, plots and sports pitches.
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The formula
hectares = acres × 0.40468564224This factor is exact. An acre is 4840 square yards, a yard is exactly 0.9144 metres, so an acre is exactly 4046.8564224 m² — and a hectare is exactly 10,000 m². The ratio terminates.
To go the other way, multiply by 2.4710538147. See hectares to acres.
Quick reference
| Acres | Hectares |
|---|---|
| 1 ac | 0.4047 ha |
| 2.471 ac | 1 ha |
| 5 ac | 2.023 ha |
| 10 ac | 4.047 ha |
| 25 ac | 10.117 ha |
| 100 ac | 40.469 ha |
| 640 ac | 258.999 ha — one square mile |
Farmland
Land is sold in acres in the United States, the United Kingdom and Ireland, and in hectares almost everywhere else — including in EU agricultural policy, which is why British farm subsidies were denominated in hectares while the same fields were bought and sold in acres.
| Acres | Hectares | |
|---|---|---|
| 1 ac | 0.40 ha | a large garden |
| 5 ac | 2.02 ha | a smallholding |
| 40 ac | 16.19 ha | a US quarter-quarter section |
| 160 ac | 64.75 ha | a US homestead quarter section |
| 640 ac | 259.00 ha | one square mile, a US section |
The US Public Land Survey System divides land into square-mile sections of 640 acres, then halves and quarters them. This is why American rural parcels are so often 160, 80 or 40 acres — they are fractions of a section, not round numbers in their own right.
Sports pitches, for scale
News reports about land almost always reach for a football pitch as the comparison, so it is worth knowing what one actually is:
| Acres | Hectares | |
|---|---|---|
| Football pitch (typical, 105 × 68 m) | 1.76 ac | 0.71 ha |
| American football field (incl. end zones) | 1.32 ac | 0.53 ha |
| Baseball outfield (varies widely) | ~2 ac | ~0.8 ha |
“Ten football pitches” is therefore about 7 hectares or 17.6 acres — but only if everyone means the same football.
Estimating in your head
Take off 60%, or halve it and subtract a fifth of what remains. 100 acres halved is 50, minus 10 is 40 ha — the true answer is 40.47 ha.