Decimal-Acre Reference / Sheet 0.2
0.2 Acres = 8,712 sq ft
A fifth of an acre, and close to the median lot for a new US single-family home. The math is exact: 0.2 multiplied by 43,560 (the international acre constant since the 1959 IYPA) equals 8,712 square feet, or 809.371 square metres. In surveyor's units that is exactly one chain by two chains.
Pre-loaded at 0.2 acres. Edit either field to recompute. Use survey foot toggle for pre-2022 federal land descriptions only.
Square Feet
8,712
international ft2
Square Metres
809.37
m2
Hectares
0.0809
ha
Derivation: 0.2 acres × 43,560 sq ft per acre = 8,712 sq ft, exactly. The constant 43,560 comes from one surveyor's chain (66 ft) multiplied by one furlong (660 ft), formalised internationally by the 1959 International Yard and Pound Agreement. A fifth of that area is one chain by two chains: 66 ft × 132 ft = 8,712 sq ft.
Sheet 02 · Scale References
What 8,712 square feet looks like
A 0.2-acre parcel laid out as a perfect square measures about 93.3 feet on each side. Most real 0.2-acre lots are rectangular rather than square: a common suburban shape is 66 ft wide by 132 ft deep, or 72 ft by 121 ft, sized to fit the street grid. The total area is what matters, and 8,712 sq ft sits in the heart of the American single-family suburban range, just below the quarter-acre standard and just above the US median new-home lot.
An NBA basketball court
4,700 sq ft
0.2 ac is 1.9× the size
A US doubles tennis court (playing area)
2,808 sq ft
0.2 ac is 3.1× the size
A quarter-acre lot (0.25 acres)
10,890 sq ft
0.2 ac is 80% of it
A standard US parking space
162 sq ft
0.2 ac is 53.8× the size
A US football field incl. end zones
57,600 sq ft
0.2 ac is 15% of it
The most useful comparison is the quarter acre: a 0.2-acre lot is exactly 80 percent of a 0.25-acre lot, so if you know what a quarter-acre suburban plot looks like, shave about a fifth off it. Against a basketball court, 0.2 acres is nearly two full NBA courts laid side by side. Walking the perimeter of a square 0.2-acre lot covers about 373 feet, roughly a minute at a normal walking pace.
Sheet 03 · What Gets Built on 0.2 Acres
The median suburban parcel
A fifth of an acre is close to the typical American new-home lot. The US Census Bureau Survey of Construction has reported the median lot size for a newly built single-family detached home at roughly 8,200 to 8,300 sq ft in recent years, which is about 0.19 acres. A 0.2-acre lot sits just above that median, which makes it a good mental anchor for what a standard suburban single-family parcel looks like on the ground.
On 8,712 sq ft, a detached house with a footprint of around 1,600 to 2,400 sq ft leaves comfortable room for a driveway, a front yard, side setbacks, and a usable back yard. A two-storey home can deliver 2,500 to 3,000 finished sq ft on that footprint while keeping lot coverage inside the 30 to 40 percent range that most residential zoning districts allow. The result is the archetypal detached suburban house with a lawn on all four sides, the mental image most buyers have when they picture a fifth-acre lot.
The exact buildable envelope depends on three local rules that always sit above the raw acreage: the minimum lot size for the zoning district, the maximum lot coverage, and the required front, side, and rear setbacks. Many US suburban single-family zones set a minimum lot size somewhere between 6,000 and 10,000 sq ft, so a 0.2-acre lot is buildable in a large share of them, but you should confirm the specific district before relying on the parcel size. A 0.2-acre lot with 35 percent maximum coverage and standard setbacks can support a ground-floor footprint of roughly 3,000 sq ft.
Because 8,712 sq ft is large enough for a full detached home but small enough to keep the yard manageable, the fifth-acre lot is common in post-war suburban subdivisions and in modern infill developments alike. It is big enough for a pool, a detached garage, or an accessory dwelling unit where local code permits, yet compact enough that mowing and upkeep stay modest compared with a half-acre or larger rural plot.
Sheet 04 · Why 0.2 Acres Shows Up in Records
Where the number comes from
If you searched ".2 acres to square feet" you almost certainly read it on a listing, a tax assessor record, a plat, or a survey. The reason a fifth of an acre appears so often is that many suburban subdivisions were platted with lot dimensions that round to roughly 8,700 sq ft, and county assessors report acreage to two decimal places:
- 66 ft by 132 ft (8,712 sq ft, exactly 0.2 acres): the clean chain-based lot, one chain wide by two chains deep, a dimension that traces straight back to the surveyor's chain used to lay out most of the United States.
- 72 ft by 121 ft (8,712 sq ft, 0.2 acres): a slightly wider street frontage with a shallower depth, common where developers wanted more houses facing the same length of road.
- 80 ft by 109 ft (8,720 sq ft, about 0.2 acres): a wide-frontage suburban lot that rounds to 0.2 acres on a tax record, typical of ranch-style subdivisions from the 1950s and 1960s.
All of these round to 0.2 acres on a public-record search because most US assessor offices report acreage to two decimal places. A 8,650 sq ft lot, an 8,712 sq ft lot, and an 8,780 sq ft lot all display as "0.2 acres" on a county parcel lookup. If precision matters, for example when calculating property tax per square foot or checking a lot-coverage ratio against the zoning maximum, pull the recorded plat and use the survey-grade square footage rather than the rounded acreage.
A fifth of an acre also shows up as a target density in planning. A subdivision built at five lots per acre yields parcels of about 0.2 acres each before roads and easements are subtracted, so 0.2 is a round figure planners and developers reach for when they describe a medium-density single-family neighbourhood.
Adjacent Decimal-Acre Pages
Nearby acreages
Sheet 05 · Common Questions