Nearly half of the world’s habitable land is used for agriculture - livestock takes ~80% for just 17 to 18% of calories [Infographic]

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Source: Our World in Data/FAO (2023), updated February 2026.
CC-BY 4.0

Humans rely on Earth's land for agricultural production, making agriculture critical to human survival. There are approximately 48 million km² (44%) of habitable land used for agriculture around the world, according to Our World In Data. That area is almost five times the size of the continental United States, demonstrating that agriculture requires a lot of land to sustain global food production.

Agricultural land can be classified into two main types: Cropland (1/3 total agricultural area) is used primarily for producing fruit, vegetables, and grains, while 2/3 of agricultural land is used primarily for grazing livestock (i.e., cows, sheep, and goats).

Roughly 80% of total agriculturally productive land is devoted to supporting livestock. However, animal food supplies provide only 17% to 18% of the global caloric intake and 38% of the protein consumed in the world, which shows high inefficiency in the use of land resources.

There are serious environmental consequences of using so much land for agriculture. The conversion of natural forestry and wetland ecosystems into agricultural fields contributes to loss of biodiversity from our planet and higher levels of atmospheric carbon dioxide. The raising of livestock requires vast amounts of land, fresh water, and feed – so much so that livestock produce significantly more resource use for humans than they provide agricultural products to humans.

To minimise agricultural resource use and reduce the harmful effects of agriculture on the environment, more sustainable agricultural practices are necessary. Solutions include increasing crop yield, promoting a shift towards plant-based diets, and decreasing the use of food crops for biofuel production (Poore & Nemecek, 2018).

For the next generation, it is important that we find a way to provide adequate nutrition to humans while protecting food ecosystems and habitats so that agriculture can continue to provide nourishment for billions of people and preserve the earth's landscapes and habitats.

Data Source / Attribution:

Infographic from Our World in Data: (Hannah Ritchie and Max Roser), based on UN FAO data and Poore & Nemecek (2018). Full original article: https://ourworldindata.org/global-land-for-agriculture

The core diagram and key proportions: (44% of habitable land for agriculture, ~80% livestock use including feed cropland, and ~17 to 18% calories / ~38% protein from animal products) remain unchanged and representative.

Supporting totals: (global agricultural land: ~4.8 billion hectares) and trends (slight net decline since 2001) are consistent with FAO 2025 data (through 2023), and related OWID charts were refreshed as recently as February 2026.

License: CC-BY 4.0

Further Reading:

Gerten, D., et al. (2020). Feeding ten billion people is possible within four terrestrial planetary boundaries. Nature Sustainability. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41893-019-0465-1

hive-196387 agriculture datavisualization sustainability foodsystems environmentalscience science
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(Edited)

The concerns you raise are why I so constantly advocate adopting aquaculture. Transforming private residences into gardens replete with fountains, in which suitable edible species like crawdads, catfish, and tilapia, are raised to harvest, and fertilize crops in the gardens while growing, could eliminate the need for commercial agriculture of all but very large animal species. Although there may be people in India that already share their homes with cows. Cows do live in close proximity to people there. Maybe arable land no longer needed for intensive agriculture after populations adopt aquaponics wholesale might be employed as range/wild land for cattle herds that won't fit in a standard living room.

The biggest problems with agriculture is it's elimination of natural habitat, chemical toxicity, and sucking up all the nutrient capital natural ecosystems have accumulated. Those problems can be not only eliminated, but replaced by net contributions to ecosystem health, and extend biodiversity, as folks adopt aquaponics to their personal circumstances. Not everyone has to grow corn and tomatoes, or in greenhouses, and plants don't have to grow in rows to be edible. Some folks might prefer exotic fruits, like guava, that ship poorly and so aren't often available outside of the tropics, and mixed plantings can certainly present aesthetic miens when comprised of edible crop species. Nasturtiums are both amongst my favorite flowers for the garden, and my favorite salad herbs, highly desirable for their peppery flavor.

I have just planted my new greenhouse, and am preparing to convert it over to aquaponics, so it isn't a theory that we can grow our food. It is something I am doing where I live. I am not a rocket scientist. If I can do it, almost anyone can.

Thanks!

Edit: I don't think I made this point clearly enough. Large animals are critical parts of natural ecosystems, not only of agriculture. While individual aquaponics systems might not be suitable for large animal husbandry, former agricultural land - where such large herbivores have been displaced from, generally - could extend the nutritional basis of communities, and complement greatly diminished natural ecosystems at the same time.

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Wow! So you’re actually doing it in your own greenhouse? I love that idea! Your perspective is really insightful and could definitely help reduce environmental impact without fully replacing farming. What you’re doing proves that it is possible to have a sustainable food system. Thanks as always for the insightful comment. :)

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Much of the land used for livestock is not suitable for use as row crops. Various changes in elevation can be traversed by animals but not by tractors.

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