Dataset · FAO
Arable Land per Person
63 years, 1961–2023 · 206 countries
Arable land per person is how many hectares of cropland a country has for each of its people. It says what a country has to work with, not how well it works with it — cereal yield is the measure that answers that.
This site holds every year from 1961 to 2023, read from FAO’s own data and stored exactly as published.
Arable Land per Person · the file
- Newest
- Arable Land per Person, 2023
- Held
- 63 years · 11,842 rows
- Licence
- CC BY 4.0
0163 years
Every year
Every year comes from FAO’s 2026 release, recalculated on one method. Each opens the full table for that year; each downloads as a CSV.
| Year | Countries | Change | Read | Download |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Arable Land per Person, 2023Newest | 206 | ±0 | September 6, 2026 | CSV |
| Arable Land per Person, 2022 | 206 | ±0 | September 6, 2026 | CSV |
| Arable Land per Person, 2021 | 206 | ±0 | September 6, 2026 | CSV |
| Arable Land per Person, 2020 | 206 | ±0 | September 6, 2026 | CSV |
| Arable Land per Person, 2019 | 206 | ±0 | September 6, 2026 | CSV |
| Arable Land per Person, 2018 | 206 | ±0 | September 6, 2026 | CSV |
| Arable Land per Person, 2017 | 206 | ±0 | September 6, 2026 | CSV |
| Arable Land per Person, 2016 | 206 | ±0 | September 6, 2026 | CSV |
| Arable Land per Person, 2015 | 206 | ±0 | September 6, 2026 | CSV |
| Arable Land per Person, 2014 | 206 | ±0 | September 6, 2026 | CSV |
| Arable Land per Person, 2013 | 206 | ±0 | September 6, 2026 | CSV |
| Arable Land per Person, 2012 | 206 | +2 | September 6, 2026 | CSV |
Show all 63 years
Every year in one file, one row per country per year: arable-land-per-person-all-editions-nations-inquiry.csv
023 columns
What’s in the file
Every column, what it holds, how it is stored and what its values look like — what a reader needs before opening the file.
| Column | What it holds | Stored as | Range, 2023 | Distinct | Empty | Spread |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
CountrycountryName | The country’s name, as this file spells it. | Text | — | 206 | 0 | |
ISO Codecountry_codeIdentifier | The ISO 3166-1 alpha-3 code, added by this site. Every table here joins on it. | Text · 3 letters | — | 206 | 0 | |
Arable land (hectares per person)arable_land_per_personHeadline | The headline figure: Arable land (hectares per person). | Number · up to 19 decimals | 0.000095 Singapore1.459397 Kazakhstanmiddle 0.108619 | 206 | 0 |
Profiled from the newest file. Range: the lowest and highest value, with the country holding it when only one does. Spread: countries in ten equal steps from lowest to highest. Neither end is better. The values describe a shape, not a score.
03206 countries across every year
Who is covered
How many countries each year holds, continent by continent, who joined and who left, and which places this site covers that the dataset never has.
| 2012 | 2013 | 2014 | 2015 | 2016 | 2017 | 2018 | 2019 | 2020 | 2021 | 2022 | 2023 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Africa | 54 | 54 | 54 | 54 | 54 | 54 | 54 | 54 | 54 | 54 | 54 | 54 |
| Americas | 42 | 42 | 42 | 42 | 42 | 42 | 42 | 42 | 42 | 42 | 42 | 42 |
| Asia | 49 | 49 | 49 | 49 | 49 | 49 | 49 | 49 | 49 | 49 | 49 | 49 |
| Europe | 44 | 44 | 44 | 44 | 44 | 44 | 44 | 44 | 44 | 44 | 44 | 44 |
| Oceania | 17 | 17 | 17 | 17 | 17 | 17 | 17 | 17 | 17 | 17 | 17 | 17 |
| All | 206 | 206 | 206 | 206 | 206 | 206 | 206 | 206 | 206 | 206 | 206 | 206 |
The newest 12 of 63 years.
Who joined and who left
- 2012
+ Sudan
+ South Sudan - 2006
+ Montenegro
+ Serbia - 2000
+ Belgium
+ Luxembourg - 1993
+ Czechia
+ Eritrea
+ Ethiopia
+ Slovakia - 1992
+ Armenia
+ Azerbaijan
+ Bosnia and Herzegovina
+ Belarus
+ Estonia
+ Georgia
+ Croatia+ Kazakhstan
+ Kyrgyzstan
+ Lithuania
+ Latvia
+ Moldova
+ North Macedonia
+ Russia
+ Slovenia
+ Tajikistan
+ Turkmenistan
+ Ukraine
+ Uzbekistan - 1991
+ Micronesia
+ Marshall Islands
+ Northern Mariana Islands
+ Palau - 1990
+ Palestine
Not in this dataset · 19 places this site covers
FAO gives no figure for these in any year held here. It is the publisher’s choice of scope, and each place’s profile shows what is measured.
04Provenance
Where it comes from
The path from the publisher to this page, and what was checked and changed on the way.
1 · Publisher
Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO)
2 · Their file
Arable Land per Person 2023
3 · Read by this site
September 6, 2026
Imported by a script that parses each figure and writes it down unrounded.4 · Stored as
63 files, one per year
Each downloads as a CSV, or every year together as arable-land-per-person-all-editions-nations-inquiry.csv5 · Used on
Its statistic page, and every profile it measures
Precision
The headline is stored to 19 decimals, as published.
Rounded by this site
Never. Tables on screen may show fewer decimals; the files never do.
Changed by this site
Reshaped into one row per country: regional and income-group totals are left out, only the columns listed are kept, each row gets its ISO 3166 code, and some country names are brought to one spelling. No value is recalculated, rescaled or rounded.
From FAOSTAT via the World Bank’s indicator API (AG.LND.ARBL.HA.PC), stored to two decimals because most countries sit below one hectare a head and a single decimal would collapse half the table onto one number.
05Reuse
Licence and credit
What the publisher’s licence lets you do, what it asks of you, and a credit line and citation ready to copy.
Licence · checked September 6, 2026
- Share and redistribute it
- Adapt it and build on it
- Use it commercially
- Credit the publisher
- Say what you changed
Share, adapt and use commercially. Credit the publisher and say if you changed anything.
A credit line
Source: Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), Arable Land per Person, via Nations Inquiry.
Cite this dataset
Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO). Arable Land per Person, 1961–2023 [data set]. As held by Nations Inquiry, https://nationsinquiry.com/datasets/arable-land-per-person
The publisher’s own citation: Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. FAOSTAT. Rome: FAO.
Plain-language summary, not legal advice. The licence text is what binds.
06Questions
Arable Land per Person: questions and answers
What is the Arable Land per Person?
Arable land per person is how many hectares of cropland a country has for each of its people. It says what a country has to work with, not how well it works with it — cereal yield is the measure that answers that.
Which years of the Arable Land per Person can I download?
All 63, from 1961 to 2023, each as a CSV file, or every year together in one CSV.
Does FAO rank countries on it?
No. FAO publishes values only. The positions shown on this site are derived by ordering the published values, and are labelled as ours.
Can I use it commercially?
Yes, under CC BY 4.0, with credit to FAO. The licence text is linked on this page.