- Software: QGIS 3.20
- OS: Any
- Updated September 2021
There are basically three ways I will walk you through to get the area of a polygon in QGIS.
The first involves an explanation of the project properties. If you open QGIS and go to Project Properties -> General you can set your units to return an linear and area measurements that you need for a project regardless of your data’s projection or CRS.
In the First Example I have set my units for distance measurement and units for area measurement to feet and square miles. My data resides in EPSG:4326. If I check a polygon using the identify features tool, I will return a derived estimate showing the ellipsoidal measurement to be around 150 square miles.
Second Example: If you want to calculate the area of a polygon for a column you can open field calculator and use the $area command .
The $area command looks at your project properties and calculates the area based on how you have set up your QGIS project.
The Final Example: Assuming your data (be it shapefile or Geopackage) is projected properly – you don’t have to set anything up in the QGIS Project properties.
Simply open Field Calculator and use the area command (not the $area but area) and calculate an area. you will need to specify $geometry in the area command: area($geometry)
Anyway – there are several ways to get an area measurement easily – and ther are more than the three but I’m assuming “time is of the essence” and you want to do this quickly and easily.
Want QGIS Training? Need help with a project? Give us a shout at info at northrivergeographic.com
