km²

Units & Measurements abbreviation · Metric and SI Unit

km²
Stands forSquare kilometer
CategoriesUnits & Measurements

km² stands for Square kilometer, a metric and SI unit abbreviation.

Area of a square 1 km on a side, equal to 100 hectares or about 0.386 square mile. Countries, cities, lakes, forests and wildfire burn areas are measured in km².

Example: The wildfire has burned more than 450 km² of forest since Tuesday.

Usage notes

Also written sq km or km2. A square mile is about 2.59 km². Russia, the largest country, covers about 17.1 million km², while Vatican City covers about 0.44 km². The exponent applies to the prefixed unit as a whole, so km² means a square kilometer (a million square meters), not a thousand square meters.

More metric and SI unit abbreviations

  • ha – Hectare
  • hL – Hectoliter
  • k – Kilo- (thousand)
  • kat – Katal
  • kg – Kilogram
  • km – Kilometer
  • kN – Kilonewton
  • kt – Kiloton (TNT equivalent)
  • L – Liter
  • ly – Light-year
  • m – Meter
  • mcg – Microgram

See all 64 metric and SI unit abbreviations →

Edited by the AbbreviationList.com team. Spotted an error or a missing meaning? Contact us.