Agricultural land use in Germany

Germany: Agricultural land use was 16.59 million hectares in 2023. ▼ Falling

Latest (2023)
16.59 million hectares
Change on year
down 0.1%
World rank
54th
of 226 countries
All-time high
19.53 million hectares
in 1965
All-time low
16.59 million hectares
in 2023
Years of data
63
1961–2023

Agricultural land use in Germany, 1961–2023

05.0M10.0M15.0M20.0M196119922023

Source: Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (2025) – with major processing by Our World in Data. Measured in hectares.

Analysis

Germany recorded 16.59 million hectares for agricultural land use in 2023. That is the lowest value across all 63 years on record.

That represents a change of down 0.1% on the previous year and down 0.7% over ten years.

Over the whole period, agricultural land use in Germany peaked at 19.53 million hectares in 1965 and was at its lowest, 16.59 million hectares, in 2023.

That places Germany 54th out of 226 countries with data for 2023, putting it in the top quarter.

The long-run direction has been consistently falling across the 63 years of available data.

Averages by decade

DecadeAverage LowestHighest Years
1960s 19.40 million hectares 19.25 million hectares 19.53 million hectares 9
1970s 18.82 million hectares 18.59 million hectares 19.02 million hectares 10
1980s 18.27 million hectares 18.06 million hectares 18.52 million hectares 10
1990s 17.31 million hectares 16.95 million hectares 18.03 million hectares 10
2000s 16.98 million hectares 16.89 million hectares 17.07 million hectares 10
2010s 16.69 million hectares 16.64 million hectares 16.73 million hectares 10
2020s 16.59 million hectares 16.59 million hectares 16.59 million hectares 4

Countries ranked near Germany

  1. 51 Paraguay 21.43 million hectares compare
  2. 52 Guinea 17.99 million hectares compare
  3. 53 United Kingdom 17.01 million hectares compare
  4. 55 Zimbabwe 16.17 million hectares compare
  5. 56 Libya 15.35 million hectares compare
  6. 57 Burkina Faso 14.61 million hectares compare

See the full ranking of 228 places →

More agriculture & rural data for Germany

All data for Germany →

Frequently asked questions

What is agricultural land use in Germany?
Agricultural land use in Germany was 16.59 million hectares in 2023, according to Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (2025) – with major processing by Our World in Data.
What is the highest agricultural land use recorded in Germany?
The highest recorded value was 19.53 million hectares in 1965.
What is the lowest agricultural land use recorded in Germany?
The lowest recorded value was 16.59 million hectares in 2023.
How does Germany rank for agricultural land use?
Germany ranks 54th out of 226 countries with data for 2023.
Is agricultural land use rising or falling in Germany?
Over the last ten years it is down 0.7%. The long-run trend across the full record is falling.
Where does this Germany data come from?
The figures come from Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (2025) – with major processing by Our World in Data, published as part of Agricultural land use. Statizoid updates them automatically from the source API.

Download this data

CSV · JSON — 63 observations, free to reuse under CC BY 4.0 (Our World in Data).

About this data

Indicator
Agricultural land use
Unit
hectares
Source
Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (2025) – with major processing by Our World in Data
Licence
CC BY 4.0 (Our World in Data)
Coverage
228 places, 13,212 data points, 1961–2023
Last refreshed

Land used for cultivation of crops and animal husbandry. The total of areas under cropland and permanent meadows and pastures.