How Big is 20 Acres of Land? (Helpful Visual Comparisons)


So you’re wondering how big 20 acres of land is? Maybe you’re looking to buy a plot of land for either personal or investment reasons or maybe you’re looking to purchasing a home that sits on a 20 acre plot of land. Whatever your reason may be, you’ve come to the right place!

Picturing how big one acre of land is probably more feasible to do than 20 acres. Let’s be honest, 20 acres is a BIG piece of land.

If one acre is 43,560 square feet, then 20 acres of land is a whopping 871,200 square feet. That’s the same as 96,800 square yards! 

Maybe those calculations didn’t help you visualize 20 acres as much as you would have liked. No worries, later in this article, we offer a handful of ways to help you imagine just how much land you are actually getting. We’ll also suggest some common and unique ways to utilize your new land!

Why 871,200 Square Feet?

If you’ve read our other two posts discussing land acreage, then it should come as no surprise to you that acreage is measured in square feet. A square foot is a square’s area provided that the sides of the square are each at least 1 foot.

You mostly hear of square feet when shopping around for apartments, homes, or even commercial office buildings to rent, but land is sometimes measured in square feet as well. That’s the case with acres of land.

Each acre is 43,560 square feet. Well, that’s the simplest definition. If you need a refresher, an acre is technically the area of a furlong by a chain. One furlong is 660 feet and a chain is 66 feet in length. It gets technical, with rods and links and all, but we won’t talk about that this time since we’ve done it before.

So using simplified terms, if one acre is 43,560 square feet, then all you have to do is the basic math from the intro. Take 43,560, multiply it by 20, and you get 871,200 square feet.

Visualizing 20 Acres of Land: 5 Handy Examples

Are you having a hard time imagining just how big 20 acres is? That’s okay. This is a lot of land we’re talking about here, and it’s not as easy to picture in your mind as you might think. That’s why we’ll now sharing some great visual examples that will help you more clearly picture the vast expanse of land that 20 acres is.

15.13 Football Fields 

In American football, a field is 91 yards. If you cover the full field from one end zone to another, that’s 1.32 acres. Considering a single football field is a little more than 1 acre, when you look at a stretch of land that’s 20 acres, how many football fields is it?

The answer is 15.13 football fields. Yes, imagine laying out nearly 15 football fields from end zone to end zone and that tells you the size of 20 acres. You’d have tons of space.

 3,240 Parking Spaces

According to this report from the Center for Profitable Agriculture at the University of Tennessee, you can add 162 parking spots within a single acre. By taking that number of parking spaces and multiplying it by the 20 acres of land you now have available, you can fit 3,240 parking spaces into this much land.

Disney World has 11,391 parking spaces, Universal Studios has 9,051 spaces, and Disneyland 10,000 parking spots. Your number of parking spaces isn’t too shabby either.

310 Tennis Courts

Since you get 15 tennis courts with a single acre of land, having 20 acres now affords you 310 tennis courts. The US Open, which is hosted at the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center in Queens, New York has only 22 tennis courts, 4 which are show courts and 12 which are practice courts.

Yes, that’s right, you could do your own US Open and then some with 20 acres of land, as you have room for way more tennis courts.

 363 Homes That Are 2,400 Square Feet A Piece

The ideal home is a roomy one, probably about 2,400 square feet. You could have your own community of homes across 20 acres, accommodating 363 homes of this size!

How Long Does It Take to Walk The Perimeter Of 20 Acres? 

Let’s say you decided to stroll from one corner of your 20-acre property to another. How long would that take you?

Well, first we have to look at the average walking speed, which is between 3 and 4 miles per hour (MPH). If you’re walking at 3 MPH consistently and you walk the perimeter of a single square acre, that should take you 180 seconds to do.

Of course, you’re not walking one acre here, but 20 acres, so you have to increase your time as well. That means you’re looking at a completion time of  804 seconds, which is approximately 13.4 minutes.

What Can You Do with 20 Acres of Land?

You’ve decided to go through with your purchase of 20 acres of land, as it’s just so much space, how could you pass it up? You’re not quite sure what to do with all the land that’s now in your name though. Any ideas?

Try the following suggestions to make the most of the generously-sized 20 acres available to you.

Build a Really Big Home

If you’ve always wanted to build your own home, you would have more than enough land in which to work with. You can get your dream house erected with no details spared.

One home on 20 acres would leave a lot of spare acreage available. You could add a large garage or a spacious backyard swimming pool to fill more space. The rest could be an ode to the beauty of nature, although mowing such a big lawn will definitely be a pain!

Contract Farming if the Land is Fertile

If your 20 acres of land is fertile, you can contract farming out and then collect the profits every year. Or if you are up for some more work, you can start your own agriculture project. First, test the soil to determine what kind of produce you would be able to grow, do your research, and start planting!

Start a Community Housing Project 

Remember, you can fit 363 homes that are each a very comfortable 2,400 square feet on your 20 acres of land. Rather than use all that space yourself for fun, give back to your neighborhood and start a community housing project.

Open a Business

Another option to consider is running a business on the 20 acres. Some ventures such as farming or starting your own greenhouse require more space than the average building can accommodate, but you could start several farms or greenhouses.

Final Thoughts 

Owning 20 acres of land is the equivalent of nearly 15 football fields and 310 tennis courts. This is 871,200 square feet in all. Whether you’ll soon buy a 20-acre expanse of land or you’re just thinking about it for now, we hope this article provided you some great information!

Related Content

You’re thinking of buying a bigger piece of land that would encompass 10 whole acres. The only problem is, you’re not really sure how big 10 acres is. Here are some more visual comparisons of 10 acres.

Maybe you’ve come into quite a great deal more significant land than even 10 acres, say 100 acres? You’re excited about the possibilities, but first, you need to know how much land you have. So how big is 100 acres of land?

Geoff

Geoff Southworth is the creator of RealEstateInfoGuide.com, the site that helps new homeowners, investors, and homeowners-to-be successfully navigate the complex world of property ownership. Geoff is a real estate investor of 8 years has had experience as a manager of a debt-free, private real estate equity fund, as well as a Registered Nurse in Emergency Trauma and Cardiac Cath Lab Care. As a result, he has developed a unique “people first, business second” approach to real estate.

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