Is agricultural land expanding? Change over the prior decade in Ethiopia
Ethiopia: Is agricultural land expanding? Change over the prior decade was 4.6% in 2023. ▼ Falling
Is agricultural land expanding? Change over the prior decade in Ethiopia, 2003–2023
Source: Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (2025) – with major processing by Our World in Data. Measured in %.
Analysis
Ethiopia recorded 4.6% for is agricultural land expanding? change over the prior decade in 2023.
Compared with earlier readings it is down 15.6% on the previous year and down 72.2% over ten years.
Over the whole period, is agricultural land expanding? change over the prior decade in Ethiopia peaked at 19.6% in 2012 and was at its lowest, 3.5%, in 2003.
That places Ethiopia 39th out of 225 countries with data for 2023, putting it in the top quarter.
The long-run direction has been consistently falling across the 21 years of available data.
Is agricultural land expanding? Change over the prior decade in Ethiopia, year by year
| Year | % | Change |
|---|---|---|
| 2003 | 3.5% | — |
| 2004 | 8.6% | +146.9% |
| 2005 | 10.1% | +17.5% |
| 2006 | 12.2% | +20.3% |
| 2007 | 15.0% | +23.3% |
| 2008 | 13.3% | -11.2% |
| 2009 | 14.5% | +8.6% |
| 2010 | 16.9% | +16.4% |
| 2011 | 18.9% | +11.9% |
| 2012 | 19.6% | +4.1% |
| 2013 | 16.4% | -16.6% |
| 2014 | 11.6% | -28.9% |
| 2015 | 10.8% | -7.6% |
| 2016 | 9.2% | -14.6% |
| 2017 | 7.0% | -23.6% |
| 2018 | 9.8% | +39.9% |
| 2019 | 9.2% | -6.7% |
| 2020 | 7.8% | -14.6% |
| 2021 | 6.7% | -14.0% |
| 2022 | 5.4% | -19.8% |
| 2023 | 4.6% | -15.6% |
Ethiopia compared with similar countries
- Ethiopia's 4.6% is above the median for low income countries, which is 0.6%, 7.6× the median. (23 countries reporting)
- Ethiopia's 4.6% is above the median for Sub-Saharan Africa, which is 0.9%, 5.1× the median. (46 countries reporting)
Biggest year-on-year movements
Years where Is agricultural land expanding? Change over the prior decade in Ethiopia changed far more than this series normally does. A large move can be a real event or a change in how the figure was measured — the source note below says who published it.
| Year | Change | From | To |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2004 | +146.9% | 3.5% | 8.6% |
Averages by decade
| Decade | Average | Lowest | Highest | Years |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2000s | 11.0% | 3.5% | 15.0% | 7 |
| 2010s | 12.9% | 7.0% | 19.6% | 10 |
| 2020s | 6.1% | 4.6% | 7.8% | 4 |
Countries ranked near Ethiopia
More agriculture & rural data for Ethiopia
- Agriculture, forestry, and fishing, value added (current US$), annual -20.36 % change on previous year (2025)
- Agriculture, forestry, and fishing, value added (current US$), per 0.3282 current US$ per US$ of GDP (2025)
- Agriculture, forestry, and fishing, value added (current US$), per 306.11 current US$ per person (2025)
- Rural population, annual growth rate 1.93 % change on previous year (2025)
- Rural population, per unit of GDP 0.0008 units per US$ of GDP (2025)
- Rural population, per capita 0.7589 units per person (2025)
- Share of GDP from agriculture 32.8% (2025)
- Agriculture as a share of GDP vs. GDP per capita 32.8% (2025)
- Agricultural raw materials exports 9.7% (2023)
- Agricultural raw materials imports 0.5% (2023)
Frequently asked questions
- What is is agricultural land expanding? change over the prior decade in Ethiopia?
- Is agricultural land expanding? change over the prior decade in Ethiopia was 4.6% 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 is agricultural land expanding? change over the prior decade recorded in Ethiopia?
- The highest recorded value was 19.6% in 2012.
- What is the lowest is agricultural land expanding? change over the prior decade recorded in Ethiopia?
- The lowest recorded value was 3.5% in 2003.
- How does Ethiopia rank for is agricultural land expanding? change over the prior decade?
- Ethiopia ranks 39th out of 225 countries with data for 2023.
- Is is agricultural land expanding? change over the prior decade rising or falling in Ethiopia?
- Over the last ten years it is down 72.2%. The long-run trend across the full record is falling.
- Where does this Ethiopia 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 Is agricultural land expanding? Change over the prior decade. Statizoid updates them automatically from the source API.
Download this data
CSV · JSON — 21 observations, free to reuse under CC BY 4.0 (Our World in Data).
About this data
Percentage change in surface area devoted to agriculture with respect to 10 years before. Negative values imply that surface area has decreased with respect to the previous decade. This data is used to assess which countries may have already peaked in their agricultural land use.