Land statistics 2001–2023

FAO

Land statistics 2001–2023

Global, regional and country trends

Year of publication 2025

Place of publication Rome, Italy ;

Pages 17 p.

Author FAO

Publisher FAO ;

Product type Booklet

Series title FAOSTAT Analytical Briefs

Series number No.107

Full item page

To cite or share https://doi.org/10.4060/cd5765en

Synopsis (short abstract) Land statistics describe the human use of the land surface for different purposes and economic activities (land use), as well as the biophysical characteristics associated to both human and natural systems (land cover). Land use data are collected from countries via the FAO land use, irrigation and agricultural practices questionnaire, following the FAO land use definitions first developed by the World Census of Agriculture and later adopted by the System of Economic and Environmental Accounts. Land cover data are compiled from global remote sensing maps following the SEEA land cover classification.This analytical brief reports the main results and changes over time in land statistics and indicators with details at global, regional and country level during the past two decades (2001–2023), with a focus on agriculture.In 2023, world total agricultural land was 4 800 million hectares, more than one-third of the global land area. Within agricultural land, cropland covered about 1 600 million hectares while permanent meadows and pastures covered 3 200 million hectares.

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Cite this content as:

FAO. 2025. Land statistics 2001–2023 – Global, regional and country trends. FAOSTAT Analytical Briefs, No.107. Rome.

https://doi.org/10.4060/cd5765en

Language English

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Land statistics describe the human use of the land surface for different purposes and economic activities (land use), as well as the biophysical characteristics associated with both human and natural systems (land cover). FAO collects annual land use data from countries via its land use, irrigation and agricultural practices questionnaire, covering the full land use matrix in line with international definitions first developed by the World Census of Agriculture. This information is complemented with land cover data, compiled independently of the questionnaire data from global remote sensing maps.This analytical brief reports the main results and changes over time in land statistics and indicators with details at global, regional and country level during the past two decades (2001–2022), with a focus on agriculture. In 2022, world total agricultural land was 4 781 million ha, more than one-third of the global land area. Within agricultural land, cropland covered 1 573 million ha while permanent meadows and pastures were 3 208 million ha.
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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.