U. S. Fish and Wildlife Service


MAP SCALE - Notes and Chart


Scale          Miles/inch   Line Width on Ground*         Examples



1:2,000,000    ~32                 2,000'          USGS Nation-wide maps

1:1,000,000    ~16                 1,000'          National and state maps

1:500,000      ~8                  500'            State or regional maps

1:250,000      ~4                  250'            US Army Map Series

1:100,000      ~1.6                100'            USGS 30' quads

1:62,500      ~5208 feet           62.5'           USGS 15' quads

1:24,000      ~2000 feet           24'             USGS 7' quads

1:15,840      ~1320 feet           15.84'          Soils

1:9,600        800 feet                            Aerial photos

*Approximate real width on ground of a pencil line on a map - harder pencils give a finer line

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1:2,000,000 to about 1:250,000 are SMALL scale maps. Items on these maps appear small (e.g. a county on a 1:2,000,000 map is much smaller than on a 1:100,000 map).

1:24,000 on towards 1:9,600 are LARGE scale maps. Items on these maps appear larger.

1:100,000 is pretty much in the middle - intermediate scale.


For additional information regarding this Web page, contact Deb Southworth Green, in the Division of Information Technology Management, at Deb_Green@fws.gov


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Keywords=GIS, data, scale
Last Modified January 08, 2001 10:34 AM