World · 2024
Arable land, by country
Arable land is ground that is ploughed and sown: land under temporary crops, temporary meadows, market and kitchen gardens, and land lying fallow for a season. About a tenth of the world’s land surface qualifies — and there is roughly half as much of it per person as there was in 1961.
Between 1961 and 2024 the world’s arable land per person fell by 52%, from 0.36 to 0.17 hectares. The land itself did not shrink: its share of the world’s land area rose from 9.6% to 10.7% over the same years. Population grew faster than ploughland did.
The step up in 1992 is a change in coverage, not new ploughland: that is the first year Russia, Ukraine, Kazakhstan and the other successor states of the Soviet Union appear in the series, bringing some 200 million hectares with them. Figures before and after 1992 therefore describe slightly different worlds.
The same series as a table
| Year | Hectares per person | % of land area |
|---|---|---|
| 1961 | 0.359 | 9.57 |
| 1971 | 0.299 | 9.85 |
| 1981 | 0.257 | 10.24 |
| 1991 | 0.224 | 10.68 |
| 2001 | 0.216 | 10.56 |
| 2011 | 0.193 | 10.64 |
| 2021 | 0.176 | 10.70 |
| 2024 | 0.172 | — |
Where it is
Largest areamillion hectares, 2024
- India153.8
- United States151.6
- Russian Federation121.6
- China108.5
- Brazil55.6
- Argentina46.8
- Canada38.1
- Nigeria37.2
- Ukraine32.9
- Australia31.3
Largest share of the country% of land area, 2024
- Bangladesh60.5%
- Denmark58.9%
- Gambia, The58.1%
- Ukraine56.8%
- Moldova56.4%
- India51.7%
- Rwanda48.9%
- Togo48.7%
- Hungary45.2%
- Burundi43.7%
Most per personhectares per person, 2024
- Kazakhstan1.48
- Australia1.15
- Argentina1.03
- Canada0.92
- Ukraine0.87
- Russian Federation0.85
- Lithuania0.79
- Moldova0.77
- Latvia0.73
- Paraguay0.66
The three lists barely overlap. The biggest areas belong to the biggest countries; the highest shares to small, flat, densely farmed ones; the most per person to large grain exporters with few people. See every economy →
What counts as arable
The figures follow the definition of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. Land abandoned through shifting cultivation is left out, and double-cropped fields are counted once. Orchards, vineyards and other permanent crops are not arable land; neither is permanent pasture. Definitions and neighbouring terms →
Latest observation 2024. World Bank dataset last updated 2026-10-08; retrieved 2026-10-28.