Ranked: The 50 Countries With the Most Agricultural Land

The 50 Countries With the Most Agricultural Land

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Agricultural land spans more than 18 million square miles worldwide, forming the foundation of global food production.

This graphic ranks the top 50 countries by agricultural land area, using the most recent FAO data compiled by the World Bank. China leads the world by a wide margin, followed by the United States and Australia.

The ranking highlights where the world’s largest agricultural footprints are located, spanning major producers across Asia, Africa, and the Americas.

Why China Has the World’s Most Agricultural Land

At 2 million square miles, China has more agricultural land than any other country worldwide. Roughly a fifth of the national population works in agriculture, and China today is the world’s largest producer and consumer of agricultural goods.

The data table below features all of the world’s countries and their total square mileage of agricultural land:

Rank	Country Name	Ag land (sq. mi)
1	China	2,009,326
2	United States	1,627,576
3	Australia	1,402,492
4	Brazil	914,131
5	Russian Federation	832,826
6	Kazakhstan	827,284
7	India	689,466
8	Saudi Arabia	670,418
9	Argentina	448,405
10	Sudan	435,002
11	Mongolia	414,933
12	Mexico	380,486
13	South Africa	371,975
14	Nigeria	267,948
15	Canada	219,596
16	Indonesia	212,828
17	Chad	194,353
18	Iran, Islamic Rep.	181,727
19	Niger	179,918
20	Angola	177,850
21	Somalia, Fed. Rep.	170,384
22	Mali	167,103
23	Mozambique	160,280
24	Algeria	159,633
25	Ukraine	159,503
26	Madagascar	157,896
27	Colombia	156,306
28	Mauritania	153,321
29	Turkmenistan	152,812
30	Tanzania	152,592
31	Bolivia	149,867
32	Namibia	149,854
33	Turkiye	148,989
34	Ethiopia	148,483
35	Afghanistan	147,167
36	Pakistan	138,977
37	Congo, Dem. Rep.	135,505
38	Morocco	115,013
39	Kenya	111,076
40	South Sudan	109,449
41	France	109,256
42	Cote d’Ivoire	106,175
43	Botswana	99,854
44	Uzbekistan	98,773
45	Spain	95,648
46	Peru	94,153
47	Zambia	92,043
48	Yemen, Rep.	90,549
49	Thailand	86,394
50	Venezuela, RB	83,012
51	Paraguay	82,730
52	Guinea	69,475
53	United Kingdom	65,674
54	Germany	64,039
55	Zimbabwe	62,422
56	Libya	59,267
57	Burkina Faso	56,413
58	Poland	56,294
59	Uganda	55,657
60	Uruguay	54,976
61	Syrian Arab Republic	52,533
62	Italy	50,531
63	Myanmar	50,183
64	Philippines	49,122
65	Romania	49,093
66	Ghana	48,663
67	Viet Nam	47,456
68	Chile	41,303
69	Congo, Rep.	41,125
70	Kyrgyz Republic	39,996
71	Cameroon	38,212
72	New Zealand	37,494
73	Tunisia	37,454
74	Senegal	36,722
75	Iraq	36,592
76	Bangladesh	36,290
77	Malaysia	33,093
78	Belarus	31,019
79	Eritrea	29,313
80	Cuba	24,714
81	Cambodia	23,762
82	Malawi	23,359
83	Central African Republic	21,887
84	Greece	20,742
85	Ecuador	20,656
86	Nicaragua	19,656
87	Hungary	19,626
88	Bulgaria	19,317
89	Azerbaijan	18,454
90	Benin	18,211
91	Guatemala	17,807
92	Japan	17,788
93	Ireland	16,174
94	Egypt, Arab Rep.	15,668
95	Portugal	15,328
96	Sierra Leone	15,247
97	Tajikistan	14,976
98	Togo	14,749
99	Nepal	14,456
100	Honduras	13,807
101	Czechia	13,646
102	Serbia	13,112
103	Sri Lanka	11,610
104	Sweden	11,514
105	Lithuania	11,093
106	Dominican Republic	10,301
107	Denmark	10,120
108	Austria	10,028
109	Korea, Dem. People’s Rep.	10,021
110	Moldova	9,421
111	Georgia	9,158
112	Lesotho	9,115
113	Lao PDR	8,831
114	Finland	8,734
115	Panama	8,456
116	Burundi	8,317
117	Gabon	8,314
118	Latvia	7,610
119	Liberia	7,425
120	Rwanda	7,271
121	Slovak Republic	7,046
122	Netherlands	6,961
123	Haiti	6,931
124	Djibouti	6,579
125	Costa Rica	6,534
126	Armenia	6,380
127	Iceland	6,324
128	Korea, Rep.	6,054
129	Switzerland	5,765
130	Croatia	5,737
131	Oman	5,682
132	Papua New Guinea	5,425
133	Belgium	5,225
134	North Macedonia	4,830
135	El Salvador	4,617
136	Eswatini	4,614
137	Bosnia and Herzegovina	4,297
138	Albania	4,033
139	Jordan	3,954
140	Estonia	3,815
141	Norway	3,792
142	Guinea-Bissau	3,245
143	Guyana	2,780
144	Lebanon	2,603
145	Gambia, The	2,448
146	Slovenia	2,360
147	Israel	2,072
148	Bhutan	2,035
149	Jamaica	1,610
150	United Arab Emirates	1,512
151	West Bank and Gaza	1,510
152	Timor-Leste	1,318
153	Fiji	1,203
154	Montenegro	1,017
155	Greenland	939
156	Vanuatu	722
157	New Caledonia	711
158	Belize	703
159	Puerto Rico (US)	652
160	Kuwait	579
161	Comoros	514
162	Luxembourg	514
163	Cyprus	498
164	Solomon Islands	422
165	Equatorial Guinea	404
166	Faroe Islands	371
167	Mauritius	332
168	Cabo Verde	305
169	Qatar	286
170	Suriname	276
171	Trinidad and Tobago	208
172	Samoa	189
173	Sao Tome and Principe	166
174	Isle of Man	152
175	Tonga	135
176	Kiribati	131
177	French Polynesia	116
178	Dominica	97
179	Andorra	72
180	Guam	62
181	Brunei Darussalam	52
182	Bahamas, The	50
183	Barbados	39
184	St. Lucia	38
185	Antigua and Barbuda	35
186	Malta	32
187	Bahrain	31
188	Grenada	31
189	Marshall Islands	27
190	St. Vincent and the Grenadines	27
191	British Virgin Islands	27
192	St. Kitts and Nevis	23
193	Maldives	23
194	Liechtenstein	20
195	Micronesia, Fed. Sts.	19
196	Palau	17
197	Hong Kong SAR, China	15
198	Virgin Islands (U.S.)	13
199	American Samoa	11
200	Cayman Islands	10
201	San Marino	9
202	Aruba	8
203	Tuvalu	7
204	Seychelles	6
205	Turks and Caicos Islands	4
206	Singapore	3
207	Northern Mariana Islands	2
208	Nauru	2
209	Bermuda	1

China even has more agricultural land than larger countries like Russia (833,000 sq. mi) and Canada (220,000) owing to those countries’ vast frozen and tundra geographies.

However, climate change is likely to change the landscape of global agriculture, as new northern regions become more hospitable for agriculture.

The Top Agricultural Players

The United States (1.6 million), Australia (1.4 million), and Brazil (914,000) round out the top five countries worldwide. Each of these countries specializes in different crops.

For example, the U.S. is the world’s largest producer of corn, while Brazil is the top grower of both soybeans and sugarcane.

Meanwhile, Australia has overcome its mostly arid geography to become a major wheat and cereals grower, rivaling major producers like India (689,000) and Ukraine (160,000).

Africa’s Growing Desert Problem

African countries make up nearly half of the top 50 countries worldwide by square mileage of agricultural land area. They’re led by larger countries like Sudan (435,000), South Africa (372,000), and Nigeria (268,000).

As with peers in Eurasia and the Americas, African agriculture is increasingly facing challenges from climate change.

In particular, the growing desertification problem is reducing countries’ agricultural land, especially in the Sahel region, as temperatures rise and soil becomes less fertile for growing crops. Over-farming and over-grazing are exacerbating regional soil erosion and deepening desertification.

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• Source: https://www.visualcapitalist.com/ranked-the-countries-with-the-most-agricultural-land/