Data for 1978

Arable Land per Person, 1978

Name: Arable Land per Person, 1978
Creator: Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO)
License: https://www.fao.org/contact-us/terms/db-terms-of-use/en/

1978, as FAO’s 2026 release gives it · stored as published, never rewritten

Arable Land per Person, 1978 covers 172 countries. Niger is highest, at 1.69015; Kuwait is lowest, at 0.00075. The middle country reads 0.20019. Against 1977, 172 values changed (33 up, 139 down), the same countries are covered.

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Arable Land per Person · Data for 1978

HighestNiger

1.69015

LowestKuwait

0.00075

Shaded by value in five groups of equal size, darkest at the highest end.

172countries
1measure
1978the year it describes
172distinct values18 decimals, as published
Sep 6, 2026read from the publisher
CC BY 4.0licence

01Position · derived

The table

Every country and every column of Arable Land per Person, 1978, as published. FAO ranks nobody on this measure; the position is derived here by ordering the published values. “=” marks a shared position.

Search this table

Showing 25 of 172 countries · select a heading to sort

Arable Land per Person, 1978: every country, as published by Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO).
derived
1	Niger`NER`Western Africa	1.69015
2	Canada`CAN`Northern America	1.65821
3	Australia`AUS`Australia and New Zealand	1.15859
4	Argentina`ARG`South America	0.92551
5	United States`USA`Northern America	0.84801
6	Central African Republic`CAF`Middle Africa	0.77149
7	Togo`TGO`Western Africa	0.71793
8	Mongolia`MNG`Eastern Asia	0.71258
9	Chad`TCD`Middle Africa	0.71248
10	Cameroon`CMR`Middle Africa	0.70383
11	Namibia`NAM`Southern Africa	0.69146
12	Syria`SYR`Western Asia	0.61497
13	Iceland`ISL`Northern Europe	0.58156
14	Afghanistan`AFG`Southern Asia	0.58113
15	Türkiye`TUR`Western Asia	0.57562
16	Libya`LBY`Northern Africa	0.57330
17	Guinea`GIN`Western Africa	0.56172
18	Senegal`SEN`Western Africa	0.56087
19	Tunisia`TUN`Northern Africa	0.54094
20	Denmark`DNK`Northern Europe	0.51780
21	Uruguay`URY`South America	0.50723
22	Finland`FIN`Northern Europe	0.50712
23	Zambia`ZMB`Eastern Africa	0.49804
24	Paraguay`PRY`South America	0.47943
25	Hungary`HUN`Eastern Europe	0.47226
26	Botswana`BWA`Southern Africa	0.47219
27	Burkina Faso`BFA`Western Africa	0.45517
28	Romania`ROU`Eastern Europe	0.44658
29	Bulgaria`BGR`Eastern Europe	0.44543
30	Tanzania`TZA`Eastern Africa	0.44502
31	South Africa`ZAF`Southern Africa	0.44195
32	Honduras`HND`Central America	0.42904
33	Spain`ESP`Southern Europe	0.42425
34	Poland`POL`Eastern Europe	0.42067
35	Morocco`MAR`Northern Africa	0.41445
36	Pakistan`PAK`Southern Asia	0.40822
37	Iraq`IRQ`Western Asia	0.40774
38	Gabon`GAB`Middle Africa	0.40352
39	Algeria`DZA`Northern Africa	0.39367
40	Benin`BEN`Western Africa	0.38996
41	Angola`AGO`Middle Africa	0.38275
42	Iran`IRN`Southern Asia	0.38226
43	Nigeria`NGA`Western Africa	0.37765
44	Cambodia`KHM`South-eastern Asia	0.37416
45	Thailand`THA`South-eastern Asia	0.36786
46	Brazil`BRA`South America	0.36380
47	Sweden`SWE`Northern Europe	0.36203
48	Chile`CHL`South America	0.35730
49	Malawi`MWI`Eastern Africa	0.35283
50	Isle of Man`IMN`Northern Europe	0.34616
51	Nicaragua`NIC`Central America	0.34574
52	Bolivia`BOL`South America	0.34102
53	Eswatini`SWZ`Southern Africa	0.33665
54	Saudi Arabia`SAU`Western Asia	0.33260
55	Guinea-Bissau`GNB`Western Africa	0.32209
56	Uganda`UGA`Eastern Africa	0.32146
57	France`FRA`Western Europe	0.31704
58	Cuba`CUB`Caribbean	0.31260
59	Belize`BLZ`Central America	0.30999
60	Greece`GRC`Southern Europe	0.30997
61	Myanmar`MMR`South-eastern Asia	0.29894
62	Bhutan`BTN`Southern Asia	0.29612
63	Madagascar`MDG`Eastern Africa	0.29496
64	Zimbabwe`ZWE`Eastern Africa	0.29349
65	Mali`MLI`Western Africa	0.27871
66	Mexico`MEX`Central America	0.27798
67	Republic of the Congo`COG`Middle Africa	0.27630
68	Mozambique`MOZ`Eastern Africa	0.27029
69	Gambia`GMB`Western Africa	0.26533
70	DR Congo`COD`Middle Africa	0.26488
71	Portugal`PRT`Southern Europe	0.25454
72	Kenya`KEN`Eastern Africa	0.25445
73	Côte d’Ivoire`CIV`Western Africa	0.25121
74	India`IND`Southern Asia	0.24894
75	Laos`LAO`South-eastern Asia	0.24435
76	Panama`PAN`Central America	0.23254
77	Burundi`BDI`Eastern Africa	0.22803
78	Albania`ALB`Southern Europe	0.22718
79	Lesotho`LSO`Southern Africa	0.21775
80	Peru`PER`South America	0.20963
81	Ecuador`ECU`South America	0.20811
82	Venezuela`VEN`South America	0.20497
83	Comoros`COM`Eastern Africa	0.20460
84	Austria`AUT`Western Europe	0.20457
85	Liberia`LBR`Western Africa	0.20404
86	Somalia`SOM`Eastern Africa	0.20229
87	Norway`NOR`Northern Europe	0.19809
88	Guatemala`GTM`Central America	0.19050
89	Dominican Republic`DOM`Caribbean	0.18617
90	Saint Kitts and Nevis`KNA`Caribbean	0.18511
91	British Virgin Islands`VGB`Caribbean	0.18372
92	Ghana`GHA`Western Africa	0.16891
93	Italy`ITA`Southern Europe	0.16830
94	Tonga`TON`Polynesia	0.16460
95	Cyprus`CYP`Western Asia	0.16363
96	Liechtenstein`LIE`Western Europe	0.15982
97	Germany`DEU`Western Europe	0.15477
98	Vanuatu`VUT`Melanesia	0.15460
99	Yemen`YEM`Western Asia	0.15291
100	Timor-Leste`TLS`South-eastern Asia	0.15268
101	Ireland`IRL`Northern Europe	0.15238
102	Nepal`NPL`Southern Asia	0.15095
103	Colombia`COL`South America	0.14753
104	Fiji`FJI`Melanesia	0.14704
105	Rwanda`RWA`Eastern Africa	0.14498
106	Haiti`HTI`Caribbean	0.14438
107	Jordan`JOR`Western Asia	0.14206
108	Turks and Caicos Islands`TCA`Caribbean	0.14118
109	Sierra Leone`SLE`Western Africa	0.13988
110	Mauritania`MRT`Western Africa	0.13786
111	New Zealand`NZL`Australia and New Zealand	0.12908
112	Costa Rica`CRI`Central America	0.12497
113	Guyana`GUY`South America	0.12461
114	North Korea`PRK`Eastern Asia	0.12404
115	United Kingdom`GBR`Northern Europe	0.12342
116	Indonesia`IDN`South-eastern Asia	0.12063
117	Cabo Verde`CPV`Western Africa	0.12020
118	Vietnam`VNM`South-eastern Asia	0.11938
119	El Salvador`SLV`Central America	0.11720
120	Philippines`PHL`South-eastern Asia	0.11300
121	Bangladesh`BGD`Southern Asia	0.10877
122	Mauritius`MUS`Eastern Africa	0.10712
123	China`CHN`Eastern Asia	0.10085
124	Dominica`DMA`Caribbean	0.09625
125	Suriname`SUR`South America	0.09436
126	Samoa`WSM`Polynesia	0.09295
127	Israel`ISR`Western Asia	0.08808
128	Malaysia`MYS`South-eastern Asia	0.08720
129	Equatorial Guinea`GNQ`Middle Africa	0.07956
130	Lebanon`LBN`Western Asia	0.07936
131	Antigua and Barbuda`ATG`Caribbean	0.07808
132	Sri Lanka`LKA`Southern Asia	0.06986
133	Jamaica`JAM`Caribbean	0.06922
134	Barbados`BRB`Caribbean	0.06361
135	Switzerland`CHE`Western Europe	0.05974
136	Trinidad and Tobago`TTO`Caribbean	0.05945
137	Netherlands`NLD`Western Europe	0.05937
138	Egypt`EGY`Northern Africa	0.05735
139	South Korea`KOR`Eastern Asia	0.05624
140	Solomon Islands`SLB`Melanesia	0.05405
141	Papua New Guinea`PNG`Melanesia	0.05327
142	United States Virgin Islands`VIR`Caribbean	0.05212
143	Saint Vincent and the Grenadines`VCT`Caribbean	0.04865
144	New Caledonia`NCL`Melanesia	0.04782
145	San Marino`SMR`Southern Europe	0.04756
146	Saint Lucia`LCA`Caribbean	0.04317
147	Japan`JPN`Eastern Asia	0.04262
148	Malta`MLT`Southern Europe	0.04191
149	Aruba`ABW`Caribbean	0.03403
150	Kiribati`KIR`Micronesia	0.03341
151	Puerto Rico`PRI`Caribbean	0.03132
152	Bahamas`BHS`Caribbean	0.03128
153	Grenada`GRD`Caribbean	0.03115
154	Andorra`AND`Southern Europe	0.03055
155	Oman`OMN`Western Asia	0.02555
156	Brunei`BRN`South-eastern Asia	0.02287
157	American Samoa`ASM`Polynesia	0.02059
158	Maldives`MDV`Southern Asia	0.01921
159	Guam`GUM`Micronesia	0.01897
160	Seychelles`SYC`Eastern Africa	0.01609
161	United Arab Emirates`ARE`Western Asia	0.01483
162	French Polynesia`PYF`Polynesia	0.01362
163	Cayman Islands`CYM`Caribbean	0.01272
164	São Tomé and Príncipe`STP`Middle Africa	0.01066
165	Bahrain`BHR`Western Asia	0.00610
166	Bermuda`BMU`Northern America	0.00561
167	Qatar`QAT`Western Asia	0.00414
168	Djibouti`DJI`Eastern Africa	0.00357
169	Hong Kong`HKG`Eastern Asia	0.00171
170	Faroe Islands`FRO`Northern Europe	0.00152
171	Singapore`SGP`South-eastern Asia	0.00085
172	Kuwait`KWT`Western Asia	0.00075

02In 1978

At either end

The 5 countries at each end of the headline.

Highest

1Niger1.69015
2Canada1.65821
3Australia1.15859
4Argentina0.92551
5United States0.84801

Lowest

172Kuwait0.00075
171Singapore0.00085
170Faroe Islands0.00152
169Hong Kong0.00171
168Djibouti0.00357

Neither end is better. The values describe a shape, not a score. The middle country reads 0.20019. “Shared” marks a value another country also holds.

031977 → 1978

Since 1977

What changed between 1977 and this one: who joined or left, and how far the headline moved.

+0 / −0countries joined / left
172values changed, of 172 in both
33 · 139rose · fell
0unchanged

Rose most

Australia1.04587 → 1.15859+0.11272
Eswatini0.27575 → 0.33665+0.06090
Tanzania0.40339 → 0.44502+0.04163
Cambodia0.33518 → 0.37416+0.03898
Paraguay0.44910 → 0.47943+0.03033

Fell most

Niger1.73923 → 1.69015−0.04909
Zambia0.54333 → 0.49804−0.04529
Iran0.41658 → 0.38226−0.03432
Republic of the Congo0.30921 → 0.27630−0.03291
Libya0.60558 → 0.57330−0.03228

Both years come from the same release, so a difference here is a change in the data, not a revision of it. Every country’s full history is charted on the statistic page.

04Caveats

Read before you use

What this edition’s numbers are and are not, worked out from the file itself.

How values are stored

One year of the 2026 release
Every year in this series comes from FAO’s 2026 release, recalculated on one method. It can differ from what was first published for 1978.
The position is ours
FAO publishes values only; the order is this site’s.
Nothing missing
Every one of the 172 countries has every column.

05The files

Download and cite

The table as a file, digit for digit, what this site changed, and a citation for this edition.

Licence in full

.csv
For a spreadsheet or code
172 rows · 7.0 KB · UTF-8, opens in Excel
Opens with 11 lines of source notes; the table starts on row 13.
Download arable-land-per-person-1978-nations-inquiry.csv
↗
The publisher’s original
FAO’s own file, on its own site.
AG.LND.ARBL.HA.PC

What this site changed: 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.

Licence: CC BY 4.0 · what it allows, in plain words

Cite this edition

Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) (1978). Arable Land per Person, 1978 [data set], describing 1978. As held by Nations Inquiry, https://nationsinquiry.com/datasets/arable-land-per-person/1978

0663 held

Other years

‹ The year before
Arable Land per Person, 1977
172 countries
The year after ›
Arable Land per Person, 1979
172 countries
All of them
Arable Land per Person: every year
63 held, with the data dictionary, coverage and licence.
How it has moved, charted by country

07Questions