Global Land Use

Of the Earth's 149 million km² of land surface, about 71% is habitable. Of that habitable land, 50% is used for agriculture, 37% is forest, 11% is shrubland or grassland, 1% is urban, and 1% is freshwater. Within the agricultural half, three-quarters is used for livestock grazing or feed-crop production — livestock alone occupies about 38% of all habitable land.

104M km²
Habitable land worldwide
50%
Habitable land used for agriculture
38%
Used directly or indirectly for livestock
1%
Urban + built environment

Key insights

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Livestock dominates the agricultural footprint

Of ~51 million km² of agricultural land, ~40 million km² is meadows and pastures used for grazing, and another ~7 million km² of cropland produces feed for livestock. Crops for direct human consumption occupy roughly 11 million km². Livestock therefore uses about 77% of agricultural land while providing 18% of food calories — the largest gap between land use and food output in the food system.

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Forest area has stabilized in many regions

Global forest cover has fallen from ~50% of habitable land in 1700 to ~37% today. Most loss happened post-1850 in temperate regions and post-1950 in the tropics. Since 2000, temperate forest area has grown slightly while tropical forest loss has continued, mainly in Brazil, the DRC and Indonesia. Net global forest area is roughly stable in the 2020s — but the new growth is plantations, not the biodiverse old growth being lost.

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Urban land is small but disproportionately impactful

Cities and built environment occupy only about 1.5 million km² globally — roughly 1% of habitable land. But cities concentrate ~57% of population, generate ~70% of GDP, and concentrate environmental pressures (heat islands, air pollution, sealed surfaces). Urbanization's land footprint will grow by ~1.5× by 2050 according to UN projections, still well under 2% of habitable land.

Global habitable land use breakdown

% of 104 million km² of habitable land

Key Finding: Agriculture and forest together account for ~87% of habitable land. Urban use is just 1.5%.

Source: FAO, Our World in Data, Ellis et al. land use synthesis

Agricultural land area 1700–2024

Million km², global total

Key Finding: Agricultural land has roughly tripled since 1700 but plateaued since ~2000 as yield growth has outpaced demand growth.

Source: HYDE database, FAO, Our World in Data

Methodology & caveats

Habitable vs total land

Of 149 Mkm² total land surface, ~14% (~21 Mkm²) is glacier and ice sheet; ~19% (~28 Mkm²) is desert and barren land. The remaining 71% (~104 Mkm²) is habitable. Land use statistics generally use habitable land as the denominator. Some sources cite percentages of total land area, which is why livestock-share figures range from ~26% to ~38% across reports.

Pasture vs grazing land

FAO statistics distinguish 'permanent meadows and pastures' (well-defined boundaries) from 'grazing on other land' (e.g. forest-adjacent grazing, marginal lands). The former is ~33 Mkm²; the latter adds another ~6–10 Mkm². Total grazed land is therefore ~40 Mkm², considerably larger than the cropland used for human food.

Data quality varies by category

Cropland and forest cover are reasonably well measured globally through remote sensing (Hansen et al., MODIS). Grazing land is harder — much grazed area in sub-Saharan Africa and Central Asia is community-managed and poorly captured by national statistics. Estimates of 'land used for livestock' aggregate cropland-for-feed plus grazing land and necessarily blend two different measurement traditions.