Global Arable Land Area in Hectares Over Time

World Development Indicators data tracks global arable land area, measured in hectares, as defined by the FAO. The dataset includes land under temporary crops, meadows, gardens, and temporarily fallow land, excluding land abandoned from shifting cultivation. It is produced by the World Bank as part of its World Development Indicators.

Use Cases

• Model arable land area trends over time for country-level sustainability assessments.
• Correlate arable land area with other agricultural indicators like crop yield or fertilizer use.
• Forecast future arable land availability using historical time-series data.

Strengths

• Data adheres to the standardized FAO definition for arable land, ensuring comparability.
• Provides a consistent global metric for tracking a fundamental agricultural resource over time.

Limitations

• Specific row count, column details, and temporal coverage are unknown, limiting reproducibility assessment.
• Excludes land under shifting cultivation, which may bias analysis in certain regions.

Provenance

Source

World Bank World Development Indicators

Collection Method

Compiled from national and international sources, using FAO definitions.

Geography

Global, country-level