Map of World Arable Land (% of Land Area)

Arable land is basically the land that can be ploughed and used for farming. This kind of land is not usually the fertile one. It may be a barren land which can be turned into fertile arable. In such lands, crops are sown as well as harvested in the same agricultural year, and sometimes more than just once. A land can also be considered arable if it is used for mowing or pasturing, kitchen gardening and even as temporarily fallow land.

The basic advantages of having arable land are - it becomes easier to produce food crops, bring out raw materials for products, a few of the crops can be used as fuel, water quality gets improved with crop rotations, food products that are produced out of pastures are healthy.

Arable lands are there in almost all the countries; however, the percentage of course differs. For example, in the United States, the percentage is 10.48, India has 9.22%, in China it is 8.80%, Russia has 7.46% and Brazil has only 3.72%. Among all the countries in the world, Bangladesh tops in having the highest percentage of arable land with 59%.

As per Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, in 2013 out of a total 4,924 M ha land, 1,407 M ha arable land was used in the world.

Arable Land by Country

Country Name	Country Code	Arable land (% of land area)
Afghanistan	AFG	11.92
Albania	ALB	22.52
Algeria	DZA	3.15
American Samoa	ASM	15.00
Andorra	AND	6.17
Angola	AGO	3.93
Antigua and Barbuda	ATG	9.09
Arab World	ARB	4.12
Argentina	ARG	14.51
Armenia	ARM	15.74
Aruba	ABW	11.11
Australia	AUS	6.02
Austria	AUT	16.41
Azerbaijan	AZE	23.29
Bahamas, The	BHS	0.80
Bahrain	BHR	2.08
Bangladesh	BGD	58.98
Barbados	BRB	25.58
Belarus	BLR	27.47
Belgium	BEL	26.95
Belize	BLZ	3.42
Benin	BEN	23.94
Bermuda	BMU	6.00
Bhutan	BTN	2.63
Bolivia	BOL	4.10
Bosnia and Herzegovina	BIH	19.73
Botswana	BWA	0.48
Brazil	BRA	9.09
British Virgin Islands	VGB	6.67
Brunei Darussalam	BRN	0.95
Bulgaria	BGR	32.05
Burkina Faso	BFA	22.66
Burundi	BDI	46.73
Cabo Verde	CPV	13.65
Cambodia	KHM	23.48
Cameroon	CMR	13.12
Canada	CAN	5.05
Cayman Islands	CYM	0.83
Chad	TCD	3.89
Channel Islands	CHI	21.95
Chile	CHL	1.76
China	CHN	11.26
Colombia	COL	1.52
Comoros	COM	34.93
Congo, Dem. Rep.	COD	3.13
Congo, Rep.	COG	1.61
Costa Rica	CRI	4.54
Cote d'Ivoire	CIV	9.12
Croatia	HRV	15.66
Cuba	CUB	29.65
Curacao	CUW
Cyprus	CYP	8.65
Czech Republic	CZE	40.77
Denmark	DNK	56.74
Djibouti	DJI	0.09
Dominica	DMA	8.00
Dominican Republic	DOM	16.56
East Asia & Pacific	EAS	9.52
Ecuador	ECU	4.81
Egypt, Arab Rep.	EGY	2.75
El Salvador	SLV	35.23
Equatorial Guinea	GNQ	4.28
Eritrea	ERI	6.83
Estonia	EST	14.91
Ethiopia	ETH	15.12
Faroe Islands	FRO	2.15
Fiji	FJI	9.03
Finland	FIN	7.32
France	FRA	33.43
French Polynesia	PYF	0.68
Gabon	GAB	1.26
Gambia, The	GMB	43.48
Georgia	GEO	6.49
Germany	DEU	34.07
Ghana	GHA	20.66
Gibraltar	GIB
Greece	GRC	19.76
Greenland	GRL	0.00
Grenada	GRD	8.82
Guam	GUM	1.85
Guatemala	GTM	9.36
Guinea	GIN	12.62
Guinea-Bissau	GNB	10.67
Guyana	GUY	2.13
Haiti	HTI	38.82
High income	HIC	10.14
Honduras	HND	9.12
Hong Kong SAR, China	HKG	2.95
Hungary	HUN	48.64
IBRD only	IBD	11.47
Iceland	ISL	1.21
IDA & IBRD total	IBT	11.10
IDA blend	IDB	13.87
IDA total	IDA	10.18
India	IND	52.81
Indonesia	IDN	12.97
Iran, Islamic Rep.	IRN	9.14
Iraq	IRQ	11.51
Ireland	IRL	16.16
Isle of Man	IMN	38.42
Israel	ISR	13.21
Italy	ITA	23.21
Jamaica	JAM	11.08
Japan	JPN	11.62
Jordan	JOR	2.60
Kazakhstan	KAZ	10.89
Kenya	KEN	10.19
Kiribati	KIR	2.47
Korea, Dem. People's Rep.	PRK	19.52
Korea, Rep.	KOR	15.35
Kosovo	KSV
Kuwait	KWT	0.59
Kyrgyz Republic	KGZ	6.65
Lao PDR	LAO	6.45
Latvia	LVA	19.42
Lebanon	LBN	12.90
Lesotho	LSO	8.17
Liberia	LBR	5.19
Libya	LBY	0.98
Liechtenstein	LIE	16.25
Lithuania	LTU	36.55
Low income	LIC	9.48
Lower middle income	LMC	18.17
Luxembourg	LUX	24.11
Macao SAR, China	MAC
Macedonia, FYR	MKD	16.38
Madagascar	MDG	6.02
Malawi	MWI	40.31
Malaysia	MYS	2.90
Maldives	MDV	13.00
Mali	MLI	5.25
Malta	MLT	28.03
Marshall Islands	MHL	11.11
Mauritania	MRT	0.44
Mauritius	MUS	36.95
Mexico	MEX	11.82
Micronesia, Fed. Sts.	FSM	2.86
Moldova	MDA	55.23
Monaco	MCO
Mongolia	MNG	0.36
Montenegro	MNE	0.58
Morocco	MAR	18.03
Mozambique	MOZ	7.18
Myanmar	MMR	16.49
Namibia	NAM	0.97
Nauru	NRU
Nepal	NPL	14.75
Netherlands	NLD	30.84
New Caledonia	NCL	0.34
New Zealand	NZL	2.08
Nicaragua	NIC	12.50
Niger	NER	12.55
Nigeria	NGA	37.33
North America	NAC	10.84
Northern Mariana Islands	MNP	2.17
Norway	NOR	2.21
Oman	OMN	0.12
Pacific island small states	PSS	3.68
Pakistan	PAK	39.53
Palau	PLW	2.17
Panama	PAN	7.57
Papua New Guinea	PNG	0.66
Paraguay	PRY	11.33
Peru	PER	3.25
Philippines	PHL	18.75
Poland	POL	35.24
Portugal	PRT	12.18
Puerto Rico	PRI	6.88
Qatar	QAT	1.22
Romania	ROU	38.02
Russian Federation	RUS	7.46
Rwanda	RWA	47.93
Samoa	WSM	2.83
San Marino	SMR	16.67
Sao Tome and Principe	STP	9.06
Saudi Arabia	SAU	1.43
Senegal	SEN	16.88
Serbia	SRB	37.72
Seychelles	SYC	0.18
Sierra Leone	SLE	21.94
Singapore	SGP	0.81
Sint Maarten (Dutch part)	SXM
Slovak Republic	SVK	28.99
Slovenia	SVN	8.64
Small states	SST	2.00
Solomon Islands	SLB	0.71
Somalia	SOM	1.75
South Africa	ZAF	10.30
South Asia	SAS	43.27
South Sudan	SSD
Spain	ESP	25.13
Sri Lanka	LKA	20.73
St. Kitts and Nevis	KNA	19.23
St. Lucia	LCA	4.92
St. Martin (French part)	MAF
St. Vincent and the Grenadines	VCT	12.82
Sudan	SDN	7.25
Suriname	SUR	0.38
Eswatini(Swaziland)	SWZ	10.17
Sweden	SWE	6.37
Switzerland	CHE	10.22
Syrian Arab Republic	SYR	25.39
Tajikistan	TJK	6.14
Tanzania	TZA	15.24
Thailand	THA	32.90
Timor-Leste	TLS	10.42
Togo	TGO	48.72
Tonga	TON	22.22
Trinidad and Tobago	TTO	4.87
Tunisia	TUN	18.36
Turkey	TUR	26.73
Turkmenistan	TKM	4.13
Turks and Caicos Islands	TCA	1.05
Tuvalu	TUV
Uganda	UGA	34.41
Ukraine	UKR	56.15
United Arab Emirates	ARE	0.45
United Kingdom	GBR	25.90
United States	USA	16.60
Uruguay	URY	13.28
Uzbekistan	UZB	10.34
Vanuatu	VUT	1.64
Venezuela, RB	VEN	3.06
Vietnam	VNM	20.67
Virgin Islands (U.S.)	VIR	2.86
West Bank and Gaza	PSE	7.64
World	WLD	10.85
Yemen, Rep.	YEM	2.36
Zambia	ZMB	4.98
Zimbabwe	ZWE	10.34

Last Updated on : November 01, 2016