Is agricultural land expanding? Change over the prior decade
About this data
Sources and processing
This data is based on the following sources
How we process data at Our World in Data
All data and visualizations on Our World in Data rely on data sourced from one or several original data providers. Preparing this original data involves several processing steps. Depending on the data, this can include standardizing country names and world region definitions, converting units, calculating derived indicators such as per capita measures, as well as adding or adapting metadata such as the name or the description given to an indicator.
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Notes on our processing step for this indicator
- Assessing this by looking at annual land use data is difficult because there can be significant year-to-year variability. That land use for one or two years was lower than previous years would be insufficient to conclude that a country had peaked. For this reason we look at decadal changes in agricultural land. We look at land use in the latest year relative to 10 years before.
- If land use is lower in the latest year then we suggest that land use may have peaked. If land use it the same or higher than a decade back, we suggest that it hasn't, or this is uncertain.
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Citations
How to cite this page
To cite this page overall, including any descriptions, FAQs or explanations of the data authored by Our World in Data, please use the following citation:
“Data Page: Is agricultural land expanding? Change over the prior decade”, part of the following publication: Hannah Ritchie, Pablo Rosado and Max Roser (2023) - “Agricultural Production”. Data adapted from Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. Retrieved from https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/agriculture-more-less-land [online resource]
How to cite this data
In-line citationIf you have limited space (e.g. in data visualizations), you can use this abbreviated in-line citation:
Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (2024) – with major processing by Our World in Data
Full citation
Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (2024) – with major processing by Our World in Data. “Is agricultural land expanding? Change over the prior decade – FAO” [dataset]. Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, “Land, Inputs and Sustainability: Land Use” [original data]. Retrieved August 22, 2024 from https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/agriculture-more-less-land