Agriculture and forest land take up 87 percent of Sweden's total land area

The total area for the country's agriculture and forestry units takes up 35.7 million hectares according to the real estate taxation of 2011. Sweden's total land area is 41 million hectares, which means that agriculture and forestry take up 87 percent.

The area of agriculture and forestry largely consists of productive forest land which amounts to 22.4 million hectares or roughly 63 percent of all land for agriculture and forestry. Other agricultural areas are distributed as follows: non-stocked forest land (18 percent), arable land (8 percent), grazing land (2 percent) and other land (9 percent).

Almost half of all productive forest land (49 percent) is owned by natural persons and 39 percent is owned by limited companies.

The taxation value for comparable agriculture and forestry units (type code 110, 120 and 121) increased by 33 percent, an unweighted change between 2011 and 2010.

Definitions and explanations

In this survey, agriculture refers to type code 110 (undeveloped agricultural unit), type code 113 (agricultural unit with a real estate value less than SEK 50 000) and type 120 (developed agricultural unit).

In real estate taxation for agriculture, the area is presented for the following types of ownership, which together comprise the total area of the taxation unit: area for forest land, unstocked forest area, arable land, grazing area and other land. Forest land is land suitable for timber production if the land can produce an average of at least a cubic metre of timber per hectare every year. Unstocked forest land is land that bore forest, but that cannot produce at least a cubic metre of timber per hectare every year. Arable land is land that is used or could be appropriately used for crop cultivation or grazing and is suitable for ploughing. Grazing land is land that is used or could be appropriately used for grazing and that is not suitable for ploughing. Other land is empty fields, roads and access roads to power lines etc.