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AD ALTA

JOURNAL OF INTERDISCIPLINARY RESEARCH

and their average values, depicted or illustrated in tables and
charts. Eurostat collects data on the structure and development of
Utilized Agricultural Area by Categories in 2007–2018 in EU
countries in thousands of ha. The Utilized agricultural area
(abbreviated as UAA) describes the area used for farming. It
includes the following land categories: arable land (AL);
permanent grassland (PGL); permanent crops (PC); other
agricultural land such as kitchen gardens (KG) even if they only
represent small areas of total UAA. The term does not include
unused agricultural land, woodland and land occupied by
buildings, farmyards, tracks, ponds, etc. Table 1 and Figure 1
comprise up-to-date data on general categories of agricultural
land from the last season of 2018.

Table 1. Up-to-date general categories of the used agricultural
land in thousands of ha in EU countries in 2018

Land

UAA

PGL

Austria

2653.84

1327.15

1258.81

66.87

1.02

Belgium

1356.08

856.83

479.64

19.62

Bulgaria

5030.28

3463.67

1399.04

152.73

14.84

Croatia

1485.65

803.9

607.56

72.34

1.85

Cyprus

131.94

104.3

1.59

0.05

Czechia

3523.22

2489.99

990.09

42.35

0.78

Denmark

2632.5

2389.8

212.7

Estonia

1004.21

679.15

311.76

4.1

9.19

Finland

2271.9

2242.6

24.1

3.4

1.8

France

29020.16 18229.91

9593.99 1044.79

151.48

Germany

16645.1

11730.9

4713.4

199.4

1.4

Greece

5288.05

1849.64

2171.27

1258.8

8.34

Hungary

5343.78

4333.7

799.28

173.37

37.43

Ireland

4516.04

449.94

4064.21

1.88

Italy

12484.98

6544.69

3482.73 2425.52

32.04

Latvia

1937.9

1294.8

634.8

8.3

Lithuania

2947.23

2113.28

794.97

31.07

7.91

Luxembourg

131.56

62.28

67.71

1.56

0.01

Malta

11.58

9.23

1.27

1.08

Netherlands

1822.4

1020.79

763.79

37.82

Poland

14539.55 11009.21

3149.87

352.57

27.9

Portugal

3591.42

919.18

1876.94

778.96

16.33

Romania

13413.74

8685.63

4288.41

341.06

98.64

Slovakia

1919.54

1347.77

523.55

17.52

30.7

Slovenia

477.93

172.98

277.17

27.78

Spain

24201.91 12125.53

7037.37 4924.94

114.07

Sweden

3000.39

2541.99

455.14

3.25

United Kingdom 17357

6044

11277

178739.9 104842.84 61256.89 12083.27

556.86

Source: Eurostat (2020).

Figure1. Actual Values (in year 2018) of Utilized Agricultural
Area in EU (in thousand of ha)

Source: Authors.

The suggested data on individual EU countries represent time
series reflecting the condition of the used agricultural land in
thousands of ha in 2018. Largest countries (France, Spain, Great
Britain and Germany) show the highest values of the used
agriculture land; on the other hand, small states (Malta,
Luxemburg, Cyprus and Slovenia) indicate the lowest rates. The
CZ enjoys 3,523.22, Slovakia 1,919.54 and the whole EU
178,739.88 thousands of ha of agricultural land.

Upon analysing data about the population in EU countries
(Eurostat, 2018), we can compare EU countries according to the
average size of UAA per inhabitant in 2018. Figure 2 suggests
the results.

Figure 2. Size of UAA in ha per inhabitant in EU states in 2018

Source: Authors.

Countries with higher UAA/inhabitant values (in ha per
inhabitant) heavily focus on agricultural production (Lithuania
1.049 and Latvia 1.002), as contrasted to states with lower
UAA/inhabitant rates, which are either smaller, or more
concerned with industry (Malta 0.02, The Netherlands 0.11,
Belgium 0.12). The CZ reflects the average value 0.33, Slovakia
0.35 and the EU as a whole 0.34 ha/inhabitant.

Owing to a different size of individual nations, a method of
relative percentage breakdown is more suitable to identify
individual land categories from the overall used agricultural land
(see Table 2 and Figure 3).

Table 2. Distribution of general categories of the used
agricultural land in 2018 (in % from UAA) in EU countries

Land

PGL

Austria

50.01

47.43

2.52

0.04

Belgium

63.18

35.37

1.45

0.00

Bulgaria

68.86

27.81

3.04

0.30

Croatia

54.11

40.90

4.87

0.12

Cyprus

79.05

1.21

19.71

0.04

Czechia

70.67

28.10

1.20

0.02

Denmark

90.78

8.08

1.14

0.00

Estonia

67.63

31.05

0.41

0.92

Finland

98.71

1.06

0.15

0.08

France

62.82

33.06

3.60

0.52

Germany

70.48

28.32

1.20

0.01

Greece

34.98

41.06

23.80

0.16

Hungary

81.10

14.96

3.24

0.70

Ireland

9.96

89.99

0.04

0.00

Italy

52.42

27.90

19.43

0.26

Latvia

66.81

32.76

0.43

0.00

Lithuania

71.70

26.97

1.05

0.27

Luxembourg

47.34

51.47

1.19

0.01

Malta

79.71

0.00

10.97

9.33

Netherlands

56.01

41.91

2.08

0.00

Poland

75.72

21.66

2.42

0.19

Portugal

25.59

52.26

21.69

0.45

Romania

64.75

31.97

2.54

0.74

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