An acre, sometimes referred to as a parcel, is defined as “a common measure of area.” In the U.S., 1 acre equals 4,840 square yards or 0.405 hectares. Parcels can come in a variety of shapes; however, traditionally the perimeter is about 834.8 feet, which would be 208.7 feet on each side.

If you’re new to the land buying process, a question likely on your mind is, “Just how big is an acre?” Well, if you’re trying to visualize how big a property is, it might help to think of the size of a football field. Including the endzones, a football field is about 57,600 square feet; there are 43,560 square feet in one acre. So, that means an American football field is around 1.32 acres. 

If football isn’t your sport, perhaps a basketball analogy would be more appropriate. The area of a single basketball court is roughly 4,700 square feet. Translated to acres, approximately 9.3 basketball courts can fit into a single acre.

Another way of looking at the question, “how big is an acre?” is to put it in terms of tennis courts. A single acre is roughly the same size as sixteen tennis courts arranged in a grid formation. Talk about a lot of “green space!” Speaking of green space, did you know that the United States is comprised of roughly 2.4 billion acres? It’s true and of those 2.4 billion acres, Alaska alone contains 17% of the United States total acreage.

Maybe sports aren’t really your thing. Well, in that case, what about semi-trucks? The average semi-truck and trailer measure out to around 424 square feet. If you were to park each truck next to one another, it would take roughly 103 semi-trucks and trailers to fill a single acre.

Alternatively, the size of a single king-sized mattress is around 42.2 square feet. If you were to cover an acre in king-sized mattresses, you would need about 1,032 mattresses to cover it all, though that may not be the most practical use for all those mattresses. 

Many readers may be wondering, “What do five acres look like?” To keep in line with the football field example above, five acres would be equivalent to roughly 4 football fields. In terms of basketball courts, about 46.5 basketball courts would fit within five acres. Alternatively, they would also equal about a third of the size of Yankee Stadium. 

Regarding costs, on average in the lower 48 states, an acre will sell for roughly 1,200 dollars. This however can vary widely depending on a multitude of factors like the location as well as profit potential from things like leasing or timber harvesting. That price can also increase due to the presence of valuable structures on the property like homes, barns, sheds, etc…  

The word “acre” actually comes from an old English word meaning “open field.” Centuries ago, farmers considered an acre to be the amount of land that could be plowed in a day with a yoke of oxen with a wooden plow. Luckily for modern farmers, these days they’re only considered to be 43,560 square feet.