Use "is" or "are" after [area]?

Question

Following sentence confuses me a lot.Less than 40 percent of the country's total area is covered by mobile networks.Why use "is" instead of "are"?  depending on which keyword?According to the Longman dictionary, if  area means "part of a country/ town", it would be  countable.Please give me a hand! thanks

Fandorin · Accepted Answer

0915regWhy use "is" instead of "are"?

Because "is" relates to the word "40 percent".

Welcome to the Forums, by the way.

Anonymous · Answer

Thanks, but I found this example in Collins dictionary.

"20 to 40 per cent of the voters are undecided..."

0915reg · Answer

but here are two examples I found in the dictionary.

"Over ninety percent of the islanders here are illiterate."
"20 to 40 per cent of the voters are undecided..."

Spaced_man · Answer

"Over ninety percent of the islanders here are illiterate."

Here, the are applies to islanders (plural).

"20 to 40 per cent of the voters are undecided..."

Here, the are applies to voters (plural).

"Less than 40 percent of the country's total area is covered by mobile networks."

Here, the is applies to country's total area (singular). Total area can be replaced by land mass (singular), which might make it clearer:

"Less than 40 percent of the country's land mass is covered by mobile networks."

spaced

0915reg · Answer

Use "is" or "are" after [area]?

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"20 to 40 per cent of the voters are undecided..."

Hi spaced, thanks for your clear explanation.

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