Agricultural land holdings decrease by 20% in EU27

Statistics issued by the Statistical Office of the European Union (Eurostat) showed that 12 million agricultural plots were used over the last year in the EU while in the EU27 member states, 170 million hectares of land were used for farming.

The census was carried out in the EU member states as well as EFTA countries every ten years with surveys carried out every two to three years between 2000 and 2010. The data was gathered on the structure of agricultural activities, covering the number and size of farmland, type of crops grown, number and type of livestock, and the labour force involved.

The number of lands for agriculture fell by 20% and the area utilized for farming by 2% when compared with 2003. Published for the first time, preliminary results of a census conducted last year on agriculture, showed that the number of agricultural land holdings has declined between 2003 and 2010 in all member states except Malta and Sweden.

The largest decreases were observed in Estonia, Bulgaria, Latvia and Poland. Last year, the largest average land found in the Czech Republic (152 ha per plot), UK (79 ha per plot), Denmark (65 hectares), Luxembourg (59 hectares), Germany (56 hectares) and France (53 hectares). The minimum number of holdings on average was reported in Malta (1 ha), Cyprus and Romania (both with three lands) as well as Greece and Slovenia (six hectares).