List of countries by arable land per capita

The following list sorts countries and territories according to their available arable land in hectares per inhabitant. All agriculturally used soils that are regularly tilled with a plow and tilled with a field crop are considered arable land. The proportion of the area already used as arable land is also given as a proportion of the total area of ​​a country as an indicator of how intensively the existing areas are already being used. The available arable land is an indicator of the real population density of a country relative to its food production capacity. However, factors such as the yield level of arable land, the potential that is still possible to increase land and the eating habits of the respective populations are not taken into account.

List of countries

All information comes from the World Bank and is based on surveys by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations and applies to 2016.

rank	country	Arable land in% of the country's area	Arable land per capita in hectares
1	Australia	6.0%	1.902
2	Kazakhstan	10.9%	1.652
3	Canada	4.8%	1.207
4th	Argentina	14.3%	0.894
5	Russia	7.5%	0.853
6th	Niger	13.3%	0.813
7th	Lithuania	34.2%	0.747
8th	Ukraine	56.6%	0.728
9	Paraguay	12.1%	0.714
10	Uruguay	13.8%	0.700
11	Latvia	20.7%	0.657
12	Belarus	28.0%	0.598
13	Guyana	2.1%	0.543
14th	Estonia	16.0%	0.529
15th	Moldova	55.6%	0.514
16	Bulgaria	32.2%	0.490
17th	United States	16.7%	0.471
18th	Hungary	47.8%	0.441
19th	Romania	37.3%	0.436
20th	Denmark	56.6%	0.415
21st	Bolivia	4.1%	0.409
22nd	Finland	7.4%	0.409
23	Central African Republic	2.9%	0.392
24	Brazil	9.7%	0.390
25th	Serbia	29.7%	0.368
26th	Iceland	1.2%	0.361
27	Mali	5.3%	0.356
28	Togo	48.7%	0.348
29	Turkmenistan	4.1%	0.343
30th	Chad	3.9%	0.339
31	Namibia	1.0%	0.323
32	Burkina Faso	21.9%	0.322
33	Bosnia and Herzegovina	20.0%	0.292
34	Poland	35.3%	0.285
...	Isle of Man	41.2%	0.281
35	Montenegro	12.8%	0.277
36	France	33.5%	0.275
37	Libya	1.0%	0.273
38	Spain	24.7%	0.265
39	Cameroon	13.1%	0.265
40	Cuba	28.7%	0.260
41	Sweden	6.3%	0.259
42	Turkey	26.5%	0.256
43	Tunisia	18.7%	0.254
44	Syria	25.4%	0.253
45	Guinea	12.6%	0.250
46	Benin	23.9%	0.248
47	Slovakia	28.0%	0.248
48	Zimbabwe	10.3%	0.248
49	Nicaragua	12.5%	0.245
50	Thailand	32.9%	0.244
51	Tanzania	15.2%	0.243
52	Cambodia	21.5%	0.241
53	Czech Republic	32.3%	0.236
54	Morocco	18.2%	0.230
55	Zambia	5.1%	0.229
56	Laos	6.6%	0.226
57	South Africa	10.3%	0.223
58	Afghanistan	11.8%	0.223
59	Gambia	43.5%	0.216
60	Albania	22.6%	0.216
61	Sierra Leone	21.9%	0.214
62	Belize	3.4%	0.213
63	Kyrgyzstan	6.7%	0.212
64	Malawi	40.3%	0.210
65	Croatia	15.6%	0.209
66	Senegal	16.6%	0.208
67	Myanmar	16.7%	0.206
68	Azerbaijan	24.2%	0.205
69	North Macedonia	16.5%	0.200
70	Greece	16.6%	0.199
71	Mozambique	7.2%	0.196
72	Mongolia	0.4%	0.187
73	Fiji	9.0%	0.184
74	Iran	9.0%	0.183
75	Nigeria	37.3%	0.183
76	Algeria	3.1%	0.182
77	Mexico	11.6%	0.177
78	Angola	3.9%	0.170
79	Tonga	25.0%	0.168
80	Ghana	20.7%	0.167
81	Uganda	34.4%	0.166
82	Guinea-Bissau	12.6%	0.165
83	Gabon	1.3%	0.164
84	Pakistan	40.3%	0.161
85	Lesotho	11.6%	0.160
86	Eritrea	6.8%	0.154
86	Austria	16.3%	0.154
86	Norway	2.2%	0.154
89	Armenia	15.7%	0.153
90	Ethiopia	15.1%	0.148
91	Germany	33.7%	0.143
92	Madagascar	6.0%	0.141
93	Panama	7.6%	0.140
94	Uzbekistan	10.3%	0.138
95	Iraq	11.6%	0.134
96	Swaziland	10.2%	0.130
97	Bhutan	2.6%	0.125
98	Ivory Coast	9.1%	0.122
99	East Timor	10.4%	0.122
100	New Zealand	2.2%	0.121
101	Kenya	10.2%	0.120
102	India	52.6%	0.118
103	Suriname	0.4%	0.116
103	El Salvador	35.6%	0.116
105	Botswana	0.5%	0.115
106	Burundi	46.7%	0.114
107	Honduras	9.1%	0.112
108	Peru	2.7%	0.110
109	Italy	22.4%	0.109
110	Liberia	5.2%	0.108
110	Saudi Arabia	1.6%	0.108
112	Republic of the Congo	1.6%	0.107
113	Luxembourg	25.5%	0.106
114	Mauritania	0.4%	0.105
115	Haiti	38.8%	0.099
116	Equatorial Guinea	4.3%	0.098
117	Rwanda	46.7%	0.097
118	Portugal	10.7%	0.095
119	Ireland	6.5%	0.094
120	Cape Verde	12.4%	0.093
121	North Korea	19.5%	0.093
122	Georgia	5.0%	0.092
122	United Kingdom	24.9%	0.092
124	St. Kitts and Nevis	19.2%	0.091
125	Democratic Republic of Congo	3.1%	0.090
125	Indonesia	13.0%	0.090
127	Slovenia	9.1%	0.089
128	People's Republic of China	12.7%	0.086
128	Venezuela	3.1%	0.086
130	Tajikistan	5.3%	0.084
131	Dominica	8.0%	0.082
132	Comoros	34.9%	0.082
133	Somalia	1.8%	0.077
134	Belgium	28.1%	0.075
135	Dominican Republic	16.6%	0.075
136	Vanuatu	1.6%	0.074
136	Vietnam	22.6%	0.074
138	Nepal	14.7%	0.073
139	Cyprus	9.2%	0.072
140	Chile	1.7%	0.071
...	Faroe Islands	2.2%	0.061
141	Sri Lanka	20.7%	0.061
142	Ecuador	3.9%	0.060
142	Netherlands	30.5%	0.060
144	Mauritius	36.9%	0.059
145	Liechtenstein	13.5%	0.057
146	Philippines	18.7%	0.054
...	American Samoa	15.0%	0.054
147	Guatemala	8.0%	0.052
148	Costa Rica	4.8%	0.051
149	Bangladesh	59.7%	0.048
149	Switzerland	10.1%	0.048
151	Palau	2.2%	0.047
152	St. Vincent and the Grenadines	12.8%	0.046
153	Yemen	2.4%	0.045
154	Sao Tome and Principe	9.1%	0.044
155	Jamaica	11.1%	0.042
156	Samoa	2.8%	0.041
157	Antigua and Barbuda	9.1%	0.040
158	Marshall Islands	11.1%	0.038
159	Papua New Guinea	0.7%	0.037
160	Colombia	1.5%	0.035
160	Israel	13.6%	0.035
...	British Virgin Islands	6.7%	0.033
162	Japan	11.5%	0.033
162	Solomon Islands	0.7%	0.033
164	San Marino	16.7%	0.030
165	Egypt	2.8%	0.029
...	Turks and Caicos Islands	1.1%	0.029
166	Grenada	8.8%	0.028
166	Malaysia	2.7%	0.028
166	South Korea	14.6%	0.028
169	Jordan	2.7%	0.025
170	Barbados	16.3%	0.025
...	New Caledonia	0.3%	0.023
171	Lebanon	12.9%	0.022
172	Bahamas	0.8%	0.020
172	Malta	28.3%	0.020
...	Aruba	11.1%	0.019
174	Micronesia	2.9%	0.019
175	Trinidad and Tobago	4.9%	0.018
...	Northern Mariana Islands	2.2%	0.018
...	Puerto Rico	6.9%	0.018
176	Kiribati	2.5%	0.017
176	St. Lucia	4.9%	0.017
...	Greenland	0.0%	0.016
178	Oman	0.2%	0.013
179	Brunei	0.9%	0.012
...	Palestine	8.4%	0.011
180	Andorra	1.7%	0.010
...	American Virgin Islands	15.0%	0.009
181	Maldives	13.0%	0.009
...	French Polynesia	0.7%	0.009
...	Guam	1.9%	0.006
182	Qatar	1.2%	0.006
183	United Arab Emirates	0.6%	0.005
...	Bermuda	5.6%	0.005
...	Cayman Islands	0.8%	0.003
184	Djibouti	0.1%	0.002
184	Kuwait	0.4%	0.002
184	Seychelles	0.3%	0.002
187	Bahrain	2.1%	0.001
...	Hong Kong	2.9%	0.000
187	Singapore	0.1%	0.000
	world	11.1%	0.192

Historical development

Development of arable land in% of total area by region 1961–2016

region	1961	1970	1980	1990	2000	2010	2016
East Asia and the Pacific	8.2%	8.6%	8.7%	10.2%	9.9%	9.4%	10.1%
South asia	42.9%	44.1%	45.0%	44.8%	44.3%	43.1%	43.3%
Latin America and the Caribbean	4.3%	5.3%	6.0%	6.5%	7.0%	8.2%	8.7%
North America	12.1%	12.7%	12.8%	12.7%	12.1%	10.9%	10.7%
Middle East and North Africa	4.4%	4.5%	4.4%	4.8%	4.8%	4.6%	4.7%
Sub-Saharan Africa	5.5%	6.2%	5.7%	6.6%	7.6%	8.7%	9.0%
Europe and Central Asia				13.4%	12.8%	12.2%	12.4%
European Union	31.8%	30.2%	29.1%	28.6%	27.3%	25.5%	24.9%
world	9.8%	10.4%	10.4%	11.0%	10.8%	10.7%	11.1%

Development of arable land in hectares per person by region 1961–2016

region	1961	1970	1980	1990	2000	2010	2016
East Asia and the Pacific	0.191	0.163	0.137	0.137	0.118	0.103	0.107
South asia	0.351	0.296	0.239	0.189	0.152	0.126	0.117
Latin America and the Caribbean	0.384	0.373	0.329	0.292	0.269	0.276	0.275
North America	1,096	1.022	0.927	0.833	0.707	0.580	0.545
Middle East and North Africa	0.476	0.379	0.280	0.219	0.176	0.144	0.131
Sub-Saharan Africa	0.552	0.499	0.352	0.307	0.255	0.221	0.208
Europe and Central Asia				0.452	0.411	0.377	0.369
European Union	0.324	0.287	0.263	0.251	0.238	0.215	0.206
world	0.367	0.321	0.267	0.236	0.227	0.199	0.192

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Arable land (% of land area) | Data. Retrieved March 1, 2019 . 
2. ↑ Arable land (hectares per person) | Data. Retrieved March 1, 2019 .