Categories:: Geospatial Functions

ST_AREA¶

Returns the area in square meters of the polygon(s) in a GEOGRAPHY object.

Syntax¶

ST_AREA( <geography_expression> )

Arguments¶

geography_expression: The argument must be of type GEOGRAPHY.

Returns¶

Returns a REAL value, which represents the area in square meters.

Usage Notes¶

If geography_expression is not a Polygon, MultiPolygon, or GeometryCollection containing polygons, ST_AREA returns 0.
If geography_expression is a GeometryCollection, ST_AREA returns the sum of the areas of the polygons in the collection.

Examples¶

This uses the ST_AREA function to calculate the area of Earth’s surface 1 degree on each side with the bottom of the area on the equator:

SELECT ST_AREA(TO_GEOGRAPHY('POLYGON((0 0, 1 0, 1 1, 0 1, 0 0))')) AS area;
+------------------+
|             AREA |
|------------------|
| 12364036567.0764 |
+------------------+