What comparison does the author use to show how much wood a person in the United States uses?

The focus of this entry is land employ for agriculture. But we are likewise studying other uses of country, including land required for homo settlement.

Agriculture is a major use of state. Half of the globe'due south habitable land is used for agriculture. The extensive land use has a major bear upon on the earth's environment as it reduces wilderness and threatens biodiversity.

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

All our charts on Land Use

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

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

If nosotros rewind 1000 years, it is estimated that only iv 1000000 foursquare kilometers – less than 4% of the world's ice-free and non-barren state surface area was used for farming.

In the visualization we see the breakdown of global land area today. 10% of the earth is covered by glaciers, and a farther nineteen% is barren land – deserts, dry salt flats, beaches, sand dunes, and exposed rocks.^one This leaves what nosotros call 'habitable land'. Half of all habitable state is used for agriculture.²

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

There is also a highly unequal distribution of land utilize between livestock and crops for human consumption. If we combine pastures used for grazing with state used to grow crops for fauna feed, livestock accounts for 77% of global farming land. While livestock takes up most of the world's agronomical land it only produces 18% of the globe'southward calories and 37% of total protein.³

The expansion of agronomics has been ane of humanity's largest impacts on the environment. Information technology has transformed habitats and is one 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.⁴ Just we as well know that we can reduce these impacts – both through dietary changes, by substituting some meat with establish-based alternatives and through applied science advances. Ingather yields have increased significantly in recent decades, pregnant we have spared a lot of land from agricultural output: globally, to produce the same amount of crops as in 1961, nosotros demand only 30% of the farmland.

With solutions from both consumers and producers, nosotros have an important opportunity to restore some of this farmland back to forests and natural habitats.

How the world'south land is used: total area sizes by blazon of use & cover

Visualising land use areas on a global map is perhaps the most relatable way to empathize the calibration of different country uses beyond the globe. In the visualization here we show the graphic displayed to a higher place – on the breakdown of global state utilize & cover – by scale on a global map.

Here, land use groupings are aggregated to show the total surface area allocated for each. Annotation that these are not used to represent the distribution of each: this figure does not mean the U.s. is wholly used for livestock, or that Europe comprises merely of barren country. It is used to indicate the global areal extent of each land use but.

Nosotros run across that:

global land allocated to livestock – either in the grade of grazing land or cropland used for brute feed is equivalent to the area of the Americas (North, Central and South America combined);
cropland (minus country used for the production of beast feed) is equivalent to the surface area of E Asia-Pacific, extending as far south equally Thailand;
forested area is equal to Africa (minus Libya), the Middle E and South Asia;
global freshwater (inland h2o bodies) approximates to the area of Mongolia
total build-up land (villages, towns, cities & infrastructure) would fit into an area the size of Great socialist people's libyan arab jamahiriya;
shrub state is equivalent to an area the size of East Asia-Pacific, from Malaysia southwards;
barren country is equivalent to the size of Europe;
glaciers (permanent water ice & snowfall) approximates to an area of Antarctica & Greenland combined.

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

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

Agricultural state utilize over the long-run

Total agronomical state utilize
Cropland employ
Grazing land use

Total agronomical land employ

This visualisation shows total land used for agronomics (which is a combination of cropland and grazing country) over the long-term, measured in hectares. In the following sections yous can find disaggregated data for cropland and grazing land modify over time.

Cropland use

This visualisation shows total cropland (which does non include land for grazing) over the long-term, measured in hectares.

Grazing state use

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

How much state do countries use for agriculture?

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

Nosotros use roughly half of global habitable country for agriculture. But how much of total land area is utilised for agriculture across the world? In the map here nosotros come across the share of total (both habitable and not-habitable) land area used for agriculture.

In that location is large variability in the share of state a given state uses for agriculture. Allocation ranges from less than ten percent, specially across countries in Sub-Saharan Africa and the Scandinavian region to close to eighty pct beyond most regions (including the United kingdom, Uruguay, South Africa, Nigeria and Saudi Arabia). It'south important to note that this metric includes both land used for abundant (cropland) product and pasture land for livestock grazing; this ways that agriculture can consume a large share of state expanse, even in arid and semi-arid regions where extensive arable farming is not possible. We will explore this difference in cropland and pastureland in the post-obit department.

If we view the map in "nautical chart" mode, nosotros see how the allotment of land to agronomics has inverse over time across the global regions. The share of land used for agronomics has been slowly increasing across most of the world's regions over the past few decades. However, country use across Europe and Central Asia- particularly within the European Wedlock (European union) zone- and North America has been declining.

Abundant agriculture (cropland)

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

For most countries, equally we will evidence in the section below, land utilise for livestock grazing is ascendant relative to abundant farming. For almost countries, land dedicated to cropland is typically below 20 percent, with many countries dedicating less than 10 percent. There are some notable exceptions, all the same; countries in South Asia and Europe classify a large share of land surface area to arable farming. Republic of india, Bangladesh, Ukraine and Denmark all dedicated more than half of total land expanse to cropland in 2015.

Pastureland (permanent meadows and pasture)

For well-nigh countries, the bulk 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 percentage of full land area.

Every bit a dissimilarity to abundant farming, land utilise for livestock in Europe and South asia, in particular, is typically less than xx percent. All the same, most continental regions have countries where pastureland reaches close to one-half of full land area. In some countries (particularly in Primal Asia, including Mongolia, Kazakhstan, and Turkmenistan) this can reach up to lxx per centum. Livestock farming tin have identify across a range of diverse climatic and environmental regions (for instance, ranging from cattle rearing in temperate regions to sheep farming in hilly and semi-arid terrain); significant that this type of agriculture is potentially less geographically-constrained than arable farming.

Cropland use 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 10,000 BC), measured in hectares per person.

Cropland apply per person in the near-term

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

In the nautical chart here we take 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 double the state employ of any other region. Land utilise in Asia– both in South and East Asia is lowest (5-vi times less than in N America). Rates of reduction in South Asia have been the most dramatic; per capita land employ in 2014 was roughly 1-3rd of its value in 1961.

Agricultural state use per person

Agricultural country per person over the long-term

The visualisation shows the change in the boilerplate agricultural country use (which is the sum of cropland and grazing area) per person over the long-term (since x,000 BC), measured in hectares per person.

Agricultural country per person over the near-term

If we extend our land coverage above from arable land use to full 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 unlike rates and patterns of reduction. Overall, we see that agronomical land per person is higher than that of arable land. At the global level, per capita agronomical land utilize is now less than half its value in 1961.

Africa in particular has seen dramatic reductions in agricultural state per person – at present less than one-3rd of per capita land 50 years ago. The Americas (Due north and Southward) and Africa have notably higher per capita agricultural country use relative to Europe and Asia.

State use by crop

In the nautical chart hither we run across the global expanse of state use in agriculture by major ingather types, from 1961 to 2014. Overall, nosotros see that the majority of our arable land is used for cereal production; this has grown from effectually 650 to 720 million hectares (an surface area roughly twice the size of Frg) over this period. The full land area used for coarse grains has remained approximately constant over this 50 year period, and is the 2nd largest user of arable land.

The most dramatic increment in country allotment is in the production of oilcrops. Total land area used for oilcrop production has increased almost 3-fold since 1961– an area just brusk of the size of Mexico. All other crop types accept upwardly less than 100 million hectares of global area.

The corporeality of land required to produce food has broad variations depending on the production–this is peculiarly true when differentiating crops and animal products. In the chart here we have plotted the average land required (sometimes termed the "country footprint") to produce i gram of protein across a range of food types.

At the lesser of the scale, nosotros run into that cereal crops typically have a small land bear on per unit of protein (although such protein is often lacking in some essential amino acids). At the upper end of the spectrum we detect meat products, with the state required for beefiness or mutton up to 100 times larger than cereals. However, information technology's of import to note the differences in country required across the meat products: poultry and pork have a country footprint 8-ten times lower than that of beef. This means individuals can make notable reductions in the environmental touch of their diets simply by substituting lower-bear upon meat products for beef or mutton.

Arable state needed per unit of crop product

This visualization shows the index of the arable country expanse needed to produce an equivalent aggregate of crop production, relative to the country area needed in 1961 i.east. values in 1961 are equal to 1.0. For example, globally in 2014, the index value was 0.3; this ways only xxx% of the abundant land area was needed to produce the aforementioned quantity of crops relative to 1961. seventy% less country was needed.

This data tin can be viewed for other countries and regions by selecting ' Add country ' on the nautical chart.

The crop production index (Pivot) is the sum of crop bolt produced (later on deductions of quantities used as seed and feed). It is weighted by the article prices. The FAO explains the construction of the Pin in detail hither.

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

The authors write: 'A combination of agronomical technologies raised yields, keeping down 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 state past changing tastes and lifting yields. The noticeable shrinkage in the extent of cropland every bit a function of the Ingather Production alphabetize since 1990 provides encouragement that farmers will continue sparing country.'

Land use categories

The post-obit discussions on global land apply (particularly in relation to agronomics) cover a number of definitions and combined categories. It is therefore useful to understand the differences between land use terminology; for case, the definition of "arable land" versus "agronomical country".

To provide some clarity on the definitions used hither (and the mutual terminology inside the literature) we have visualised these land apply categories and groupings in the chart shown here. Also shown are the definitions of each. The groupings and definitions shown beneath are based on the UN Nutrient and Agricultural Organisation (FAO) and should therefore be consistent with virtually international information sources.

Definitions of agricultural land use

The Country Area of the Earth is 13,003 million ha. 4,889 million ha are classified as 'agronomical surface area' by the FAO (this is 37.half-dozen% of the Land Surface area).

The agricultural expanse use is divided into 3 categories: abundant land (28% of the global agronomical area), permanent crops (3%) and permanent meadows and pastures (69%) which business relationship for the largest share of the globe's agricultural expanse.⁶

What exercise these words hateful?

The agricultural area is the sum of abundant land, permanent crops, permanent meadows and pastures.

The FAO definition for arable state is country nether temporary agricultural crops (multiple-cropped areas are counted only once), temporary meadows for mowing or pasture, land under marketplace and kitchen gardens and country temporarily fallow (less than five years). The abandoned land resulting from shifting cultivation is not included in this category. Data for "Abundant country" are not meant to indicate the corporeality of land that is potentially cultivable.'⁷

The same source defines permanent crops as follows: 'Permanent crops are divided into temporary and permanent crops. Permanent crops are sown or planted in one case, so occupy the land for some years and need non exist replanted after each annual harvest, such equally cocoa, java and rubber. This category includes flowering shrubs, fruit trees, nut trees and vines, just excludes trees grown for wood or timber. And again from the same source the definition for permanent meadows and pastures is 'land used permanently (five years or more) to grow herbaceous forage crops, either cultivated or growing wild (wild prairie or grazing land).'

The FAO definition for fallow country is 'the cultivated state that is not seeded for one or more than growing seasons. The maximum idle period is usually less than v years.'

Information Sources

FAO Statistical Database (FAOstat)

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

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