The World Land Use Pie Graph Shown Here Lets You Know

The focus of this entry is land utilize for agriculture. But we are also studying other uses of land, including land required for man settlement.

Agriculture is a major utilise of land. One-half of the earth's habitable country is used for agronomics. The extensive land use has a major impact on the earth's environs equally it reduces wilderness and threatens biodiversity.

Reducing the consumption of resource-intensive products and increasing the productivity of land makes it possible to produce food with much smaller inputs and reducing the impact on the environment.

All our charts on Land Utilise

Half of the globe's habitable land is used for agriculture

For much of human history, most of the world'due south state was wilderness: forests, grasslands and shrubbery dominated its landscapes. Over the concluding few centuries, this has changed dramatically: wild habitats have been squeezed out by turning information technology into agricultural land.

If we rewind 1000 years, it is estimated that only 4 1000000 square kilometers – less than iv% of the earth's ice-gratuitous and non-barren land area was used for farming.

In the visualization we encounter the breakdown of global country area today. 10% of the world is covered past glaciers, and a farther 19% is barren country – deserts, dry salt flats, beaches, sand dunes, and exposed rocks.^one This leaves what we call 'habitable country'. One-half of all habitable land is used for agriculture.²

This leaves only 37% for forests; 11% as shrubs and grasslands; 1% as freshwater coverage; and the remaining one% – a much smaller share than many suspect – is built-upwardly urban expanse which includes cities, towns, villages, roads and other human infrastructure.

There is also a highly unequal distribution of land use between livestock and crops for human consumption. If we combine pastures used for grazing with land used to abound crops for animal feed, livestock accounts for 77% of global farming state. While livestock takes upward most of the world's agricultural state information technology only produces 18% of the world's calories and 37% of total poly peptide.³

The expansion of agriculture has been one of humanity'southward largest impacts on the environs. It has transformed habitats and is 1 of the greatest pressures for biodiversity: of the 28,000 species evaluated to exist threatened with extinction on the IUCN Red List, agronomics is listed equally a threat for 24,000 of them.^four But we too know that we can reduce these impacts – both through dietary changes, by substituting some meat with plant-based alternatives and through engineering science advances. Crop yields take increased significantly in recent decades, meaning we have spared a lot of country from farm production: globally, to produce the same amount of crops as in 1961, we need but 30% of the farmland.

With solutions from both consumers and producers, we have an of import opportunity to restore some of this farmland dorsum to forests and natural habitats.

How the world'due south land is used: total surface area sizes by type of use & comprehend

Visualising land utilise areas on a global map is mayhap the nearly relatable way to empathize the calibration of unlike land uses beyond the world. In the visualization here we evidence the graphic displayed to a higher place – on the breakdown of global country use & cover – by calibration on a global map.

Here, land use groupings are aggregated to show the total surface expanse allocated for each. Note that these are not used to represent the distribution of each: this effigy does not mean the Us is wholly used for livestock, or that Europe comprises just of barren land. Information technology is used to indicate the global areal extent of each land use only.

We come across that:

global state allocated to livestock – either in the grade of grazing land or cropland used for animal feed is equivalent to the expanse of the Americas (Northward, Central and Due south America combined);
cropland (minus land used for the production of brute feed) is equivalent to the area of E Asia-Pacific, extending as far due south as Thailand;
forested area is equal to Africa (minus Libya), the Middle Eastward and Southern asia;
global freshwater (inland water bodies) approximates to the area of Mongolia
total build-upwards land (villages, towns, cities & infrastructure) would fit into an area the size of Great socialist people's libyan arab jamahiriya;
shrub land is equivalent to an area the size of Eastward Asia-Pacific, from Malaysia southwards;
arid state is equivalent to the size of Europe;
glaciers (permanent ice & snowfall) approximates to an area of Antarctica & Greenland combined.

How has global land use changed over the long-term?

The visualisation shows man land utilize over the long-term (since 10,000 BC), and details the change in total land used for cropland, grazing land and built-up/urban area in hectares. This can besides be viewed past select countries and all regions using the "change country/region" option.

Agronomical land use over the long-run

Full agricultural land use
Cropland use
Grazing land use

Full agronomical country use

This visualisation shows 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 information for cropland and grazing state change over time.

Cropland utilize

This visualisation shows full cropland (which does not include land for grazing) over the long-term, measured in hectares.

Grazing land use

This visualisation shows full grazing land over the long-term, measured in hectares.

How much state do countries use for agriculture?

Arable agronomics (cropland)
Pastureland (permanent meadows and pasture)

Nosotros use roughly half of global habitable land for agriculture. But how much of full land area is utilised for agriculture across the globe? In the map hither we come across the share of total (both habitable and non-habitable) state surface area used for agronomics.

There is big variability in the share of land a given state uses for agriculture. Allotment ranges from less than ten pct, particularly across countries in Sub-Saharan Africa and the Scandinavian region to close to 80 percent across most regions (including the Uk, Uruguay, Southward Africa, Nigeria and Kingdom of saudi arabia). It's important to note that this metric includes both land used for arable (cropland) production and pasture land for livestock grazing; this means that agriculture can consume a large share of land area, fifty-fifty in arid and semi-arid regions where extensive arable farming is not possible. Nosotros will explore this difference in cropland and pastureland in the post-obit section.

If we view the map in "chart" mode, we see how the allocation of land to agriculture has changed over time across the global regions. The share of land used for agronomics has been slowly increasing across near of the world'due south regions over the past few decades. Yet, country utilise across Europe and Fundamental Asia- especially inside the European Marriage (Eu) zone- and Northward America has been declining.

Arable agriculture (cropland)

At that place are two chief uses of agricultural state: abundant farming (which is country dedicated to growing crops), and pastureland (which includes meadows and pastures used for livestock rearing). In the chart here we run into a global map of country used for arable agriculture (as a share of total land surface area).

For virtually countries, as we will show in the section beneath, land employ for livestock grazing is dominant relative to abundant farming. For most countries, state defended to cropland is typically beneath 20 percent, with many countries dedicating less than 10 percent. In that location are some notable exceptions, however; countries in South Asia and Europe allocate a large share of land area to arable farming. India, People's republic of bangladesh, Ukraine and Kingdom of denmark all defended more than than half of total land expanse to cropland in 2015.

Pastureland (permanent meadows and pasture)

For most countries, the majority of agricultural land is used for livestock rearing in the form of pastureland. In the map here we see the share of permanent meadows and pasture as a percent of total country area.

As a dissimilarity to arable farming, land use for livestock in Europe and South Asia, in particular, is typically less than 20 percent. Yet, most continental regions have countries where pastureland reaches shut to half of total land area. In some countries (specially in Cardinal Asia, including Mongolia, Kazakhstan, and Turkmenistan) this tin can reach up to 70 percent. Livestock farming tin take place across a range of various climatic and ecology regions (for case, ranging from cattle rearing in temperate regions to sheep farming in hilly and semi-arid terrain); meaning that this type of agriculture is potentially less geographically-constrained than arable farming.

Cropland apply per person

Cropland per person over the long-term

The visualisation here shows the change in the boilerplate cropland use per person over the long-term (since x,000 BC), measured in hectares per person.

Cropland employ per person in the near-term

Global population has more than doubled over the last 50 years. To run across the demands of a quickly growing population on a planet with finite land resources, reducing our per capita country footprint is essential.

In the chart here nosotros have plotted trends of the average arable land utilize per person across the world's regions. Overall nosotros see that the arable land apply per capita has declined across all regions since 1961. Per capita country utilize is highest in North America– more than double the state utilise of any other region. Country use in Asia– both in S and Eastern asia is everyman (5-6 times less than in Due north America). Rates of reduction in South asia have been the most dramatic; per capita land use in 2014 was roughly ane-third of its value in 1961.

Agricultural land use per person

Agricultural land per person over the long-term

The visualisation shows the change in the average agricultural land apply (which is the sum of cropland and grazing area) per person over the long-term (since 10,000 BC), measured in hectares per person.

Agricultural land per person over the near-term

If we extend our land coverage above from arable land employ to full agricultural country (which is the sum of arable, permanent crops and pastures and meadows), we still meet overall declines in country per person but with dissimilar rates and patterns of reduction. Overall, we see that agricultural land per person is higher than that of arable country. 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 agricultural state per person – now less than one-third of per capita state 50 years ago. The Americas (North and Southward) and Africa have notably higher per capita agricultural state use relative to Europe and Asia.

Land utilise by crop

In the chart hither nosotros see the global expanse of land apply in agriculture past major ingather types, from 1961 to 2014. Overall, nosotros run across that the majority of our arable land is used for cereal production; this has grown from effectually 650 to 720 meg hectares (an area roughly twice the size of Germany) over this period. The total land area used for fibroid grains has remained approximately constant over this 50 year menses, and is the 2nd largest user of arable country.

The well-nigh dramatic increase in land resource allotment is in the product of oilcrops. Full land area used for oilcrop production has increased almost three-fold since 1961– an area merely short of the size of Mexico. All other crop types accept up less than 100 meg hectares of global area.

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 nautical chart hither nosotros have plotted the average land required (sometimes termed the "state footprint") to produce ane gram of poly peptide across a range of nutrient types.

At the bottom of the scale, we see that cereal crops typically take a pocket-sized country touch on per unit of protein (although such protein is often lacking in some essential amino acids). At the upper end of the spectrum we find meat products, with the country required for beef or mutton up to 100 times larger than cereals. All the same, it'due south important to note the differences in land required across the meat products: poultry and pork have a land footprint 8-x times lower than that of beefiness. This means individuals can make notable reductions in the environmental impact of their diets merely by substituting lower-bear on meat products for beef or mutton.

Arable land needed per unit of ingather product

This visualization shows the alphabetize of the arable state area needed to produce an equivalent aggregate of crop product, relative to the state surface area needed in 1961 i.due east. values in 1961 are equal to 1.0. For example, globally in 2014, the alphabetize value was 0.3; this means but 30% of the arable country area was needed to produce the same quantity of crops relative to 1961. seventy% less land was needed.

This information tin can be viewed for other countries and regions by selecting ' Add land ' on the chart.

The crop production index (Pivot) is the sum of crop commodities produced (after deductions of quantities used as seed and feed). It is weighted by the commodity prices. The FAO explains the construction of the PIN in detail hither.

The thought for this chart is taken from Ausubel, Wernick, and Waggoner (2013).^v

The authors write: 'A combination of agronomical technologies raised yields, keeping downward pressure on the extent of cropland, sparing land for nature.
Countering the global rise of population and affluence by parents and workers, consumers and farmers restrained the expansion of arable land by changing tastes and lifting yields. The noticeable shrinkage in the extent of cropland equally a function of the Crop Production alphabetize since 1990 provides encouragement that farmers will continue sparing land.'

Land employ categories

The following discussions on global country use (peculiarly in relation to agronomics) cover a number of definitions and combined categories. It is therefore useful to understand the differences between land utilize terminology; for example, the definition of "arable land" versus "agricultural land".

To provide some clarity on the definitions used hither (and the common terminology within the literature) we take visualised these land use categories and groupings in the chart shown here. Besides shown are the definitions of each. The groupings and definitions shown below are based on the UN Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) and should therefore be consistent with nigh international information sources.

Definitions of agricultural country utilize

The State Area of the Earth is xiii,003 million ha. 4,889 million ha are classified every bit 'agronomical area' by the FAO (this is 37.vi% of the Land Area).

The agricultural expanse employ is divided into 3 categories: abundant land (28% of the global agricultural surface area), permanent crops (3%) and permanent meadows and pastures (69%) which account for the largest share of the world'due south agricultural area.⁶

What practice these words hateful?

The agronomical expanse is the sum of arable land, permanent crops, permanent meadows and pastures.

The FAO definition for arable land is land nether temporary agricultural crops (multiple-cropped areas are counted only once), temporary meadows for mowing or pasture, country under marketplace and kitchen gardens and land temporarily fallow (less than 5 years). The abased land resulting from shifting cultivation is not included in this category. Data for "Arable land" are not meant to indicate the amount of land that is potentially cultivable.'^seven

The aforementioned source defines permanent crops every bit follows: 'Permanent crops are divided into temporary and permanent crops. Permanent crops are sown or planted in one case, and then occupy the state for some years and need non exist replanted after each almanac harvest, such as cocoa, coffee and safety. This category includes flowering shrubs, fruit trees, nut trees and vines, but excludes trees grown for wood or timber. And again from the same source the definition for permanent meadows and pastures is 'land used permanently (v years or more) to grow herbaceous provender crops, either cultivated or growing wild (wild prairie or grazing land).'

The FAO definition for fallow state is 'the cultivated land that is not seeded for i or more than growing seasons. The maximum idle menstruation is unremarkably less than v years.'

Data Sources

FAO Statistical Database (FAOstat)

Data: Many indicators relating to food production, yields and land use – the full list is here.
Geographical coverage: Global – by country and world region.
Time span: Since 1961.
Available at: Bachelor for download here.

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Source: https://ourworldindata.org/land-use