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Land statistics. Global, regional and country trends 1990–2018

Year of publication 2020

Place of publication Rome, Italy ;

Pages 19 p.

Author FAO

Publisher FAO ;

Product type Book (series)

Series title FAOSTAT Analytical Briefs

Series number No. 15

Edition 1

Synopsis (short abstract) The FAOSTAT Land Use statistics and associated land indicators provide information on the full land use matrix by country, including agricultural land (1961–2018) and forest land (1990–2018). These statistics are based on data collected annually from countries via a standard Land Use, Irrigation and Agricultural Practices questionnaire. Forest land statistics in the dataset are collected separately from countries through the FAO Global Forest Resources Assessment (FRA, 2020). The FAOSTAT Land Cover statistics are conversely produced by FAO, based on its Land Cover Classification System (FAO-LCCS) (De Gregorio, 2015). Information is derived from remote sensing products generated independently by specialized Agencies, currently NASA (MODIS land cover) and the European Copernicus Climate Change service (CCI land cover). Thei brief provides an overview of the main results and changes over time in land use statistics with a focus on agricultural land uses, and with details at global, regional and country level. Additional information is provided on important irrigation and agricultural practices also collected via the above-mentioned FAO questionnaire. It also presents some of the results from the land cover dataset also at global, regional and country level and compares them to land use statistics, thus giving for the first time a joint view of land statistics in FAOSTAT.

Last updated 02/02/2021

Cite this content as:

​FAO. 2021. Land statistics. Global, regional and country trends, 1990–2018. FAOSTAT Analytical Brief Series No. 15. Rome. 

Language English

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