Acres to Perches Converter

A perch, also called a rod or a pole, is an old English linear unit equal to exactly 16.5 feet. When used as an area unit, a "square perch" (sometimes just called a "perch" in land-measurement context) is a 16.5 x 16.5 foot square, 272.25 square feet.

An acre was historically defined as 4 roods, and 1 rood was defined as 40 square perches, so 4 x 40 = 160 square perches per acre. This ties back to the same medieval farming-derived system that gives the acre its otherwise odd 43,560-square-foot size, the numbers all fit together once you know the historical chain of definitions.

The standard English/imperial perch (16.5 feet) is used here and is the most common definition, but some regions and historical systems used slightly different local perch lengths. If you're working with a historical land record from outside the English measurement tradition, double-check which definition applies before relying on this conversion.

Mainly in older land deeds, historical surveys, and some rural or traditional contexts in Ireland, the UK, and a few other countries where land was originally surveyed using imperial units. It's largely obsolete for everyday use, replaced by acres, hectares, or square meters, but it still shows up when researching or interpreting older property records.

Yes, this converter works in both directions live: type a number into acres and the perches field updates automatically, or type into perches and acres updates instead.