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SQUARE MILE

This article is about the unit of measure. For other meanings, see Square mile (disambiguation).
For other uses, see Square.

A square mile is an Imperial unit / U.S. customary unit of area equal to that of a square with sides each 1 statute mile (5,280 feet, 1,760 yards, 1,609.344 metres) in length. It is not an SI or metric unit. Current official usage is largely confined to the United States and Canada, though it remains well used in the United Kingdom, largely because road signs are still listed in miles. The other major Imperial unit / U.S. customary unit of area is the acre, of which there are 640 in a square mile. The primary SI unit of area is the square metre.

Symbols

There is no universally agreed symbol but the following are used:

  • square mile
  • sq mile
  • sq mi
  • sq m (this can be confused with square metre)
  • mile/-2
  • mi/-2
  • m/-2 (this can be confused with square metre)
  • mile^2
  • mi^2
  • m^2 (this can be confused with square metre)
  • mile²
  • mi²
  • m² (this can be confused with square metre)

Conversions

1 square mile is equivalent to:

In the Public Land Survey System of the U.S. and the Dominion Land Survey of Canada, the size of a standard section of land is one square mile.

See also