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- Around 10% is covered by glaciers, and a further 14% by deserts and other barren land. The rest is what researchers call ‘habitable land’. Almost half (44%) of the world’s habitable land is used for agriculture.1 In total, it is an area of 48 million square kilometers (km2). That’s around five times the size of the United States.2
ourworldindata.org/global-land-for-agriculture
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- How Has Global Land Use Changed Over The Long term?
- Agricultural Land Use Over The Long Run
- How Much Land Do Countries Use For Agriculture?
- Cropland Use Per Person
- Agricultural Land Use Per Person
- Land Use by Crop
- Land Use by Food Type
- Definitions
The visualization shows human land use over the long term (since 10,000 BCE) and details the change in total land used for cropland, grazing land, and built-up/urban area in hectares. This can also be viewed by select countries and all regions using the "change country or region" option.
Total agricultural land use
This visualization shows the total land used for agriculture (which is a combination of cropland and grazing land) over the long term, measured in hectares. In the following sections, you can find disaggregated data on cropland and grazing land change over time.
Cropland use
This visualization shows total cropland (which does not include land for grazing) over the long term, measured in hectares.
Grazing land use
This visualization shows total grazing land over the long term, measured in hectares.
We use roughly half of global habitable land for agriculture. But how much of the total land area is utilized for agriculture across the world? In the map here we see the share of total (both habitable and non-habitable) land area used for agriculture. There is large variability in the share of land a given country uses for agriculture. Allocation ...
Cropland per person over the long term
The visualization here shows the change in the average cropland use per person over the long term (since 10,000 BCE), measured in hectares per person.
Cropland use per person in the near term
The global population has more than doubledsince the mid-twentieth century. To meet the demands of a rapidly growing population on a planet with finite land resources, reducing our per capita land footprint is essential. In the chart here we have plotted trends of the average arable land use per person across the world's regions. Overall, we see that the arable land use per capita has declined across all regions since 1961. Per capita land use is highest in North America — more than double th...
Agricultural land per person over the long term
The visualization shows the change in the average agricultural land use (which is the sum of cropland and grazing area) per person over the long term (since 10,000 BCE), measured in hectares per person.
Agricultural land per person over the near term
If we extend our land coverage above from arable land use to total agricultural land (which is the sum of arable, permanent crops and pastures and meadows), we still see overall declines in land per person but with different rates and patterns of reduction. Overall, we see that agricultural land per person is higher than that of arable land. At the global level, per capita agricultural land use is now less than half its value in 1961. Africa, in particular, has seen dramatic reductions in agr...
In the chart here, we see the global area of land use in agriculture by major crop types from 1961 onwards. Overall, we see that the majority of our arable land is used for cereal production; this has grown by around 70 million hectares — an area roughly twice the size of Germany. The total land area used for coarse grains has remained approximatel...
The amount of land required to produce food has wide variations depending on the product — this is especially true when differentiating crops and animal products. In the chart here we have plotted the average land required (sometimes termed the "land footprint") to produce one gram of protein across a range of food types. At the bottom of the scale...
Land use categories
The following discussions on global land use (particularly in relation to agriculture) cover a number of definitions and combined categories. It is, therefore, useful to understand the differences between land use terminology, for example, the definition of "arable land" versus "agricultural land". To provide some clarity on the definitions used here (and the common terminology within the literature), we have visualized these land use categories and groupings in the chart shown here. Also sho...
Definitions of agricultural land use
The land area of the World is 13 billion hectares. 4.8 billion are classified as 'agricultural area' by the FAO (this is 37% of the land area). The agricultural area use is divided into two categories: cropland (33% of the global agricultural area and permanent meadows and pastures (67%) which account for the largest share of the world's agricultural area.2 What do these words mean? The agricultural areais the sum of cropland, permanent meadows, and pastures. The FAO definition for croplandis...
The Ecological Footprint tracks the use of productive surface areas. Typically these areas are: cropland, grazing land, fishing grounds, built-up land, forest area, and carbon demand on land.
- Janet Ranganathan, Richard Waite, Tim Searchinger, Craig Hanson
- 2018
- Reduce food loss and waste. Approximately one-quarter of food produced for human consumption goes uneaten. Loss and waste occurs all along the food chain, from field to fork.
- Shift to healthier, more sustainable diets. Consumption of ruminant meat (beef, lamb and goat) is projected to rise 88 percent between 2010 and 2050.
- Avoid competition from bioenergy for food crops and land. If bioenergy competes with food production by using food or energy crops or dedicated land, it widens the food, land and GHG mitigation gaps.
- Achieve replacement-level fertility rates. The food gap is mostly driven by population growth, of which half is expected to occur in Africa, and one third in Asia.
Mar 4, 2024 · Most of the world’s farmland today is used for the production of meat and dairy, either as grazing land or cropland to grow animal feed.7 77% of all agricultural land is used to raise livestock for meat and dairy. In total, this is an area of 38 million km².
Mar 26, 2019 · Livestock is the biggest of all land users in the world according to some sources, and far outweighs the use of land for crop production. According to some estimates, 70 to 80% of agricultural land is used for livestock (to both raise them, and feed them), and only about 20 to 30% for crops.
The white area around it (1) represents dairy and market gardening; 2) (green) the forest for fuel; 3) (yellow) field crops and grains; 4) (red) ranching and livestock; and the outer (dark green) region represents the wilderness where agriculture is not practiced.
