United States 

Department 

of Agriculture 

Economic 

Research 

Service 

Electronic 

Report 

Economic

Information

Bulletin

Number 14

May 2006

Major Uses of Land in

The United States, 2002

Ruben N. Lubowski 

Marlow Vesterby

Shawn Bucholtz

Alba Baez

Michael J. Roberts
www.ers.usda.gov

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Major uses of land in the United States, 2002.

(Economic information bulletin; no. 14)

 1. Land use—United States—Statistics.

 2. Land use, Rural—United States—Statistics.

 3. Farms—United States—Statistics.

 4. Rangelands—United States—Statistics.

 5. Forests and forestry—United States—Statistics.

 I. Lubowski, Ruben N. 

 II. United States. Dept. of Agriculture. Economic Research Service.

 III. Title.

HD205
United States

Department

of Agriculture

www.ers.usda.gov

Electronic Report from the Economic Research Service

Economic

Infomation 

Bulletin

Number 14 Major Uses of Land in the

United States, 2002

Ruben N. Lubowski, Marlow Vesterby, Shawn

Bucholtz, Alba Baez, and Michael J. Roberts

May 2005

Abstract

This publication presents the results of the latest (2002) inventory of U.S.

major land uses, drawing on data from the Census, public land management

and conservation agencies, and other sources. The data are synthesized by

State to calculate the use of several broad classes and subclasses of agricultural and nonagricultural land over time. The United States has a total land

area of nearly 2.3 billion acres. Major uses in 2002 were forest-use land,

651 million acres (28.8 percent); grassland pasture and range land, 587

million acres (25.9 percent); cropland, 442 million acres (19.5 percent);

special uses (primarily parks and wildlife areas), 297 million acres (13.1

percent); miscellaneous other uses, 228 million acres (10.1 percent); and

urban land, 60 million acres (2.6 percent). National and regional trends in

land use are discussed in comparison with earlier major land-use estimates.

Keywords: Land use, land-use change, agricultural land, nonagricultural

land, cropland, forest-use land, forestland, pasture, rangeland, rural residential land, special uses, urban land

Acknowledgments

The authors thank Daniel Hellerstein, Cynthia Nickerson, and Keith Wiebe

for helpful comments on earlier drafts of this report. We are grateful to

Ralph Alig and Brad Smith from the USDA Forest Service, Mei-Ling

Freeman from the U.S. Census Bureau, Linda Hutton from the USDA

National Agricultural Statistics Service, and Darrell Napton from South

Dakota State University for thoughtful reviews. We also thank Lou King for

editorial assistance, graphics, and layout.
Contents

Preface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .iii

Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .iv

How the Land Is Used . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1

Trends in Major Uses of Land . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .5

Basic Regional Land-Use Patterns . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .9

Cropland . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .12

Cropland Used for Crops . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .12

Other Cropland . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .13

Trends in Cropland Uses . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .14

Regional Changes in Cropland Used for Crops . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .19

Changes in Principal Crops Harvested . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .19

Grazing Land . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .22

Cropland Pasture . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .22

Grassland Pasture and Range . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .22

Grazed Forest Land . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .23

Trends in Grazing Acreage . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .23

Forest-Use Land . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .25

Trends in Forest-Use Acreage . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .26

Urban and Rural Residential Uses . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .28

Trends in Urban and Rural Residential Uses . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .30

Special Uses . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .31

Trends in Special Uses . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .32

Miscellaneous Other Land Uses . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .34

Major Uses of Land, by Class of Ownership . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .35

References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .37

Appendix: Definitions and Explanation of the Data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .43

Historical data are available online as part of the ERS Major Land Uses data

series at http://www.ers.usda.gov/data/majorlanduses/. Included are major

land-use estimates by State (1945-2002), and the annual national-level series

of cropland used for crops and its components (1910-2005). 

Summary tables for 2002 are available online at

http://www.ers.usda.gov/data/majorlanduses/. These include data by region

and State for major uses of land, major uses of cropland, pasture and range,

special-use areas by category, forest land by major class, urban area, and

irrigated land in farms.

ii

Major Uses of Land in the United States, 2002/EIB-14

Economic Research Service/USDA
Preface

The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Economic Research Service (ERS)

has served as a source of major land-use estimates in the United States for

over 50 years. The major land-use series is the only consistent accounting of

all major uses of land in the United States, public and private. Francis

Marschner made some of the earliest contributions by reporting land use

from 1922 through 1940 in the Atlas of American Agriculture when he was

with ERS’s predecessor agency, the Bureau of Agricultural Economics. A

consistent series was started in 1945, and has since been published at intervals coinciding with the Census of Agriculture. Marschner was also

involved in the 1945 inventory (Reuss et al., 1948). The annual cropland

portion of the series has been consistently maintained since 1910. 

To ensure comparability with earlier estimates in the series, a standardized

set of procedures is used (Barnard and Hexem, 1988). Even so, comparability was sometimes hindered by changes in the characteristics of data

available over time. This is inevitable because the estimates are not drawn

from a single survey but derived by reconciliation of several data sources. 

Economic analyses often require consistent acreage estimates of land use.

Prior to 1945, area estimates of major land uses were not consistently available for all States and all major uses of land. Various agencies had data on

land use that differed widely in definition, collection criteria, and acreage.

No single agency provided all land uses that would sum to the total land in

the United States. For example, the Forest Service had data on forestland

while the Bureau of Land Management provided public grazing land

acreage. The Census of Agriculture collected information on cropland and

rangeland, but only if it was included in "land in farms," missing agricultural land not in farms. Various other Federal and State agencies provided

data on parks, fish and wildlife areas, roads, railroads, defense installations,

and other categories. 

Data availability has continued to improve due to new data collection efforts

and advances in technology, such as satellite imaging and Geographic Information Systems. The U.S. Geological Survey produced a satellite-based

National Land Cover Database (NLCD), which covers the 48 contiguous

States for 1992, and is compiling an update for 2001, including all 50 States

and Puerto Rico. These data offer comprehensive coverage and unparalleled

detail on the distribution and pattern of land uses, as well as aggregate

acreage statistics. Satellite data, however, are limited in their ability to

provide information on certain land uses as opposed to land covers. For

example, NLCD cannot distinguish between grazed or ungrazed forests. 

USDA’s Natural Resources Conservation Service also publishes the National

Resources Inventory (NRI), a successor to the Conservation Needs Inventory. The NRI includes agricultural land not covered by the Census of Agriculture. However, the NRI does not cover Federal land, which accounts for

about 28 percent of total U.S. land area. Also, the NRI concentrates on the

48 contiguous States and Hawaii, omitting Alaska’s 365 million acres (16

percent of the total U.S. area). ERS remains the only source of consistent

major land-use estimates for all 50 States.

iii

Major Uses of Land in the United States, 2002/EIB-14

Economic Research Service/USDA
Summary

The ERS Major Land Uses (MLU) series is the only accounting of all major

uses of land, both public and private, in all 50 States. A consistent series of

estimates by State was started in 1945, and has since been published at

roughly 5-year intervals coinciding with the Censuses of Agriculture.

National-level cropland estimates have been reported annually since 1910. 

What Is the Issue? 

Land-use changes have important economic and environmental implications

for commodity production and trade, open space, soil and water conservation, and other policy issues. A first step in the study of land-use change is

developing statistics on land use over time. This publication presents the

results of the latest inventory (2002) of U.S. major land uses. 

What Did the Study Find? 

The most consistent trends in major uses of land (1945-2002) have been a

growth in special-use and urban areas and a decline in total grazing lands.

Forest-use land has generally declined since the 1940s, but increased 2

percent from 1997 to 2002. Total cropland area dipped about 2 percent from

1945 to 2002, but has cycled upwards and downwards twice over this

period. Between 1997 and 2002, total cropland area reached a new 57-year

low, continuing a downward trend since 1978. 

Land area. The United States’ land area totals nearly 2.3 billion acres. Land

used for all agricultural purposes accounted for 52 percent of total U.S.

land, while total grazing area (grassland pasture and range, cropland

pasture, and grazed forests) comprised 35 percent of the total and two-thirds

of all agricultural land. Major land uses in 2002 were forest-use land, 651

million acres (28.8 percent of the total); grassland pasture and range, 587

million acres (25.9 percent); cropland, 442 million acres (19.5 percent);

special uses, 297 million acres (13.1 percent); miscellaneous other uses, 228

million acres (10.1 percent); and urban land, 60 million (2.6 percent).

Within the nonurban land-use categories, about 94 million acres (4.2 percent

of total U.S. land) were estimated to be rural residential area. 

Cropland. Total cropland includes land planted for crops, cropland used for

pasture, and cropland idled, including acreage removed from production

under government programs such as the Conservation Reserve Program.

Total cropland increased in the late 1940s, declined from 1949 to 1964,

increased from 1964 to 1978, and decreased again (about 6 percent) from

1978 to 2002. Between 1997 and 2002, total cropland decreased by 14

million acres (3 percent) to its lowest level since 1945. 

Grassland pasture and range. Estimated acreage of grassland pasture and

range increased by almost 7 million acres (1 percent) from 1997 to 2002.

However, total grazing land acreage (grassland pasture and range, cropland

pasture, and grazed forests) decreased from 1997 to 2002, continuing a

decline since the 1940s. 

iv

Major Uses of Land in the United States, 2002/EIB-14

Economic Research Service/USDA
Forest-use land. Forest-use land includes 134 million acres of grazed

forests, but excludes 98 million forest acres that were estimated to be in

parks, wildlife areas, and other special uses in 2002. Forest-use land

increased 10 million acres (2 percent) from 1997 to 2002, reversing a downward trend since the 1940s. The 14-percent decline in forest-use land

between 1949 and 2002 was largely due to reclassification of forested land

from forest-use to special-use areas. 

Urban and rural residential areas. Urban land area quadrupled from 1945 to

2002, increasing at about twice the rate of population growth over this period.

After adjusting earlier estimates for new criteria used in the 2000 Census,

urban area increased by 13 percent between 1990 and 2002. Census estimates

based on the previous criteria indicate that urban area increased 9 million acres

(18 percent) over the 1980s, 13 million acres (37 percent) over the 1970s, and

9 million acres (36 percent) over the 1960s. Estimated acreage of rural land

used for residential purposes increased by 21 million acres (29 percent) from

1997 to 2002, and by 17 million acres (30 percent) from 1980 to 1997. 

Special uses. Special-use areas (rural transportation uses, national and State

parks, wilderness and wildlife areas, national defense and industrial areas,

and farmsteads and farm roads) increased 11 million acres (4 percent) from

1997 to 2002. Special-use land has more than doubled in the 48 contiguous

States from 100 million acres in 1945 to 212 million acres in 2002. Some of

the estimated rise in special-use areas from 1997 to 2002 was driven by

improved data, leading to a reclassification of miscellaneous and other land,

which declined by 7 million acres (3 percent) over this period. 

Regional patterns. Regional land-use patterns vary with differences in soil,

climate, topography, and population. Stable patterns of land use at the

national level can obscure larger changes in land use at regional and State

levels. While cropland used for crops increased just 5 million acres (1

percent) nationally from 1964 to 2002, cropland used for crops in the Northeast, Southeast, Northern and Southern Plains, Mountain, and Pacific

regions declined by 12 million acres (6 percent). It increased 17 million

acres (13 percent) in the remaining regions. 

Ownership. Over 60 percent (1,378 million acres) of U.S. land is privately

owned. The Federal Government owns nearly 28 percent (635 million

acres), over a third of which is in Alaska. State and local governments own

about 9 percent (195 million acres). Over 2 percent (56 million acres) is in

trust by the Bureau of Indian Affairs. There were no major changes in these

aggregate ownership patterns from 1997 to 2002. 

How Was the Study Conducted? 

Data from the U.S. Census Bureau, public land management agencies, and

other sources were assembled and synthesized by State to calculate the use

of several broad classes and subclasses of agricultural and nonagricultural

land in 2002. A standardized set of procedures was used to maintain comparability with earlier estimates.

v

Major Uses of Land in the United States, 2002/EIB-14

Economic Research Service/USDA
Major Uses of Land in the

United States, 2002

Ruben N. Lubowski, Marlow Vesterby,

Shawn Bucholtz, Alba Baez, and 

Michael J. Roberts

How the Land Is Used

The United States has a land area of about 2.3 billion acres, which is allocated among a variety of uses (fig. 1). The largest shares of the Nation’s

land were allocated to forest use, grassland pasture and range, and cropland. (See Appendix for detailed descriptions of terms in bold). About 20

percent of the land area was cropland in 2002, 26 percent was permanent

grassland pasture and range, and 29 percent was forest-use land.1 Urban

areas constituted just 3 percent of U.S. land, while a variety of special uses

accounted for 13 percent of the land base and miscellaneous other uses

comprised the remaining 10 percent. These proportions are significantly

affected by the land area of Alaska, which, relative to the contiguous 48

States, has small amounts of cropland and pasture but large areas of forestuse, special-use, and miscellaneous other land. The full set of historical estimates, by region and State, are available online as an ERS data series,

Major Land Uses.2

Land classified as cropland totaled about 442 million acres in 2002 (fig. 1).

This total represents all land in crop rotation, including cropland pasture

(fig. 2). Cropland used for crops—cropland harvested, cropland failure,

and cultivated summer fallow—totaled 340 million acres, or 77 percent of

total cropland acreage (table 1). Fourteen percent of total cropland was

cropland used only for pasture, while 9 percent of total cropland was classified as idle cropland. Acreage enrolled in the Conservation Reserve

Program (CRP) is included in this component. The CRP, established by the

Food Security Act of 1985, is the largest Federal program idling cropland,

offering annual rental payments to farm owners and operators who voluntarily retire environmentally sensitive cropland under 10- to 15-year

contracts. In 2002, the CRP paid about $1.6 billion to retire about 34

million cropland acres (an area almost the size of Iowa). 

In 2002, land used for agricultural purposes—cropland; grassland pasture

and range; forest land grazed; and land in farmsteads, farm roads, and

lanes—totaled nearly 1.2 billion acres, just under 52 percent of total U.S.

land area (table 1). By comparison, the Census Bureau estimated 938

million acres of "land in farms" in 2002 (USDA/NASS, 2004a). The difference is mostly accounted for by grazing lands (both forested and

nonforested) not defined by Census as being in farms, and cropland under1 The forest-use designation excludes

about 98 million acres of forest land

in special uses, such as parks and

wildlife areas. Forest land used for all

purposes in 2002 totaled 749 million

acres, nearly a third of the land area of

the United States. 

2 See http://www.ers.usda.gov/data/majorlanduses/. Additional summary tables for 2002 are available at

http://www.ers.usda.gov/data/majorlanduses/.

1

Major Uses of Land in the United States, 2002/EIB-14

Economic Research Service/USDA
enumerated by the Census of Agriculture (Barnard and Hexem, 1988). In

2002, the Census estimate of total principal crops harvested was about 98

percent of the estimate for the same crops from the National Agricultural

Statistics Service (NASS). The Major Land Uses cropland estimate is based

on Census data, with an adjustment to reconcile the estimates with the

NASS data in each State. 

Livestock grazing was the primary use of an estimated 587 million acres of

permanent grassland pasture and range, accounting for 26 percent of all

U.S. land and half of all agricultural land. When cropland pasture (62

million acres) and forested grazing land (134 million acres) are added to the

permanent grassland acreage, total grazing land comprised about 783

million acres, or 35 percent of the total U.S. land area and two-thirds of all

agricultural land. 

Forest-use land not grazed (total forest land minus land grazed and in

special uses, such as national and State parks) amounted to 517 million

acres and the largest share of nonagricultural land (table 1). Nonagricultural

special-use areas (excluding almost 11 million acres of special-use land in

farmsteads and farm roads) were estimated to account for more than 286

2

Major Uses of Land in the United States, 2002/EIB-14

Economic Research Service/USDA

Figure 1

Major uses of land, 2002

Notes: The area of each major land use is listed in millions of acres with the corresponding share of the total land base in 

parentheses. Urban uses are listed as a separate category and are not included under the special uses category as was done in 

previous Major Land Uses reports. The land base includes streams and canals less than one-eighth mile wide, and ponds, lakes, 

and reservoirs covering less than 40 acres. Distributions by major use may not add to totals due to rounding. See Appendix for 

more complete descriptions of the different land-use categories.

Sources: Estimates are based on reports and records of the Bureau of the Census (HUD/BOC, 1992, 2002, 2003) and Federal, 

State, and local land management and conservation agencies including DOI/BLM, 2003; DOT/BTS, 2004; DOT/FAA, 2002; 

DOT/FHWA, 2002; DOT/FRA, 2004; USDA/FS 1989, 1998; DOI/FWS, 2001; GSA, 2001; GDT, 2000; USDA/NASS, 2004a, 2005; 

DOI/NPS, 2002; USDA/NRCS, 2000, 2004a; and WI, 2002.

Million acres

Cropland

Grassland, pasture, and range

Forest-use land

Special uses

Miscellaneous land

Urban land

97

(5%)

153

(8%)

559

(30%)

584

(31%)

441

(23%)

442

(20%)

587

(26%)

651

(29%)

297

(13%)

228

(10%)

59

(3%)

60

(3%)

48 States

All States

0 500 1,000 1,500 2,000 2,500
million acres, almost 13 percent of the Nation's land area. Federal and State

parks, wildlife refuges, and related acres occupied 242 million acres, almost

11 percent of the total land base. Rural transportation land accounted for

27 million acres, and defense and other public installations/facilities totaled

about 17 million acres.

Sixty million acres were classified as urban areas; all but 400,000 acres

were in the contiguous 48 States. Urban acreage accounted for less than 3

percent of the Nation's overall land area, and just over 3 percent of the land

area of the contiguous 48 States.3 The remaining 228 million acres (10

percent) of the U.S. land area included various miscellaneous uses not

inventoried, including tundra, deserts, bare rock areas, snow and ice fields,

swamps, marshes, and other unclassified areas generally of low agricultural

value. The land classed under other miscellaneous uses may also include

much of the estimated 94 million acres of land used for rural housing lots in

2002. Given the data used to define rural residential area, it is not possible

to distinguish rural housing lots from land classed under nonurban other

uses, such as forests or grassland pasture and range.

3 In previous Major Land Uses

reports, urban areas were classified as

part of special-use areas. Given the

growing interest in urban land-use

trends, urban areas are treated as a distinct use in this report. For reporting

consistency, urban areas are listed separately as well as under special uses in

the ERS Major Land Uses data 

product.

3

Major Uses of Land in the United States, 2002/EIB-14

Economic Research Service/USDA

0

100

200

300

400

500

1949 1954 1959 1964 1969 1974 1978 1982 1987 1992 1997 2002

Total cropland

Cropland pasture

Idle cropland

Summer fallow

Crop failure

Harvested cropland

Total cropland used for crops

Figure 2

Major uses of U.S. cropland

Note: See Appendix for descriptions of the different cropland categories.

Sources: Estimates prior to 2002 are from Daugherty, 1991, 1995; Frey, 1973, 1979, 1982; Frey and Hexem; Frey et al., 1968; 

Wooten et al., 1962; Vesterby and Krupa; Wooten and Anderson, 1957; and Wooten, 1953a.

Million acres
4

Major Uses of Land in the United States, 2002/EIB-14

Economic Research Service/USDA

Table 1

Agricultural and nonagricultural uses of land, United States, 2002

Acreage Proportion of total

Land use 48 States U.S. 48 States U.S.

-----Million acres----- -----Percent-----

Agricultural

Cropland:

Cropland used for crops 1 340 340 18.0 15.0

Idle cropland 40 40 2.1 1.8

Cropland used only for pasture 62 62 3.3 2.7

Grassland pasture and range 584 587 30.8 25.9

Forest-use land:

Forest land grazed 134 134 7.1 5.9

Special uses:

Farmsteads, farm roads 11 11 0.6 0.5

Total agricultural land 2 1,171 1,174 61.8 51.8

Nonagricultural

Forest-use land:

Forest-use land not grazed 3 425 517 22.4 22.8

Special uses:

Transportation uses 4 27 27 1.4 1.2

Recreation and wildlife areas 5 100 242 5.3 10.7

National defense areas 6 15 17 0.8 0.8

Urban land 59 60 3.1 2.6

Miscellaneous other land 7 97 228 5.1 10.1

Total nonagricultural land 2 723 1,091 38.2 48.2

Total land area 2 1,894 2,264 100.0 100.0 1 Cropland harvested, crop failure, and cultivated summer fallow. 2 Breakdown of land uses may not add to totals due to rounding. 3 Excludes 98 million acres of forest land in parks and other special uses. 4 Rural highways, roads and railroad rights-of-way, and rural airports. 5 National and State parks and related recreational areas, national and State wildlife refuges,

and national wilderness and primitive areas. 6 Federal land administered by the Department of Defense for military purposes and land

administered by the Department of Energy. 7 Includes miscellaneous uses not inventoried, and areas of little surface use such as marshes,

open swamps, bare rock areas, desert, and tundra.

Sources: Estimates are based on reports and records of the Bureau of the Census

(HUD/BOC, 1992, 2002, 2003) and Federal, State, and local land management and conservation agencies, including DOI/BLM, 2003; DOT/BTS, 2004; DOT/FAA, 2002; DOT/FHWA, 2002;

DOT/FRA, 2004; USDA/FS 1989, 1998; DOI/FWS, 2001; GSA, 2001; GDT, 2000; USDA/NASS,

2004a, 2004b, 2005; DOI/NPS, 2002; USDA/NRCS, 2000, 2004a; and WI, 2002.
Trends in Major Uses of Land

The most consistent trends in major uses of land (1945-2002) have been an

upward trend in special-use and urban areas and a downward trend in total

grazing lands (table 2; see Appendix for detailed descriptions of terms in

bold).4 Forest-use area generally declined from 1949 to 1997 but increased

by about 1 percent in the latest period (1997-2002). Total cropland area has

declined over this 57-year period, but has not done so consistently. Total

cropland area increased in the late 1940s, declined from 1949 to 1964,

increased from 1964 to 1978, and then declined again from 1978 to 2002.

Total cropland area in 2002 was 442 million acres, its lowest level since the

Major Land Uses series began in 1945, but only 2 million acres (less than 1

percent) below the previous low in 1964. From 1997 to 2002, cropland area

declined by almost 14 million acres (3 percent), including a 6-million-acre

decline in cropland pasture. These changes were more than offset by an

increase in grassland pasture and range and by an increase in forest and

special-use areas. Land classed under miscellaneous other uses also

declined by more than 7 million acres (3 percent) from 1997 to 2002. 

4 Major land-use estimates for the 48

contiguous States began in 1945, but

estimation for the entire United States

did not begin until 1949. Estimates for

1945 are indicative of total acreages in

cropland, grassland pasture and range,

and urban areas, which are concentrated in the contiguous 48 States, but

not of forest, special uses, and other

miscellaneous uses, which account for

99 percent of Alaska’s land area.

Estimates for special uses do not

include all 50 States until 1959.

5

Major Uses of Land in the United States, 2002/EIB-14

Economic Research Service/USDA

Table 2

Major uses of land, United States, 1945-2002

Land use 1945 1 1949 1959 1964 1969 1974 1978 1982 1987 1992 1997 2002 2

-----Million acres-----

Cropland 451 478 458 444 472 465 471 469 464 460 455 442

Cropland used for crops 363 383 359 335 333 361 369 383 331 338 349 340

Idle cropland 40 26 34 52 51 21 26 21 68 56 39 40

Cropland pasture 47 69 66 57 88 83 76 65 65 67 68 62

Grassland pasture and range 3 659 632 633 640 604 598 587 597 591 591 580 587

Forest-use land 4 602 760 745 732 723 718 703 655 648 648 641 651

Grazed forest-use land 345 320 245 225 198 179 172 158 155 145 141 134

Other forest-use land 257 440 501 507 525 539 531 497 493 503 501 517

Special-use areas 5 85 87 115 144 143 147 158 270 279 281 286 297

Urban areas 2 15 18 27 29 31 35 45 50 57 59 66 60

Miscellaneous other land 6 93 298 293 277 291 301 301 224 227 224 236 228

Total land area 1, 7 1,905 2,273 2,271 2,266 2,264 2,264 2,264 2,265 2,265 2,263 2,263 2,264

1 The estimates for 1945, and for special uses until 1959, only account for the 48 contiguous States. The estimates for all other years include all

50 States. 2 The 2002 urban acreage estimate is not directly comparable to estimates in prior years due to a change in the definition of urban areas in the

2000 Census of Population and Housing. The change in Major Land Uses “urban” acreage between 1997 and 2002 reflects a definitional

change, rather than a decline in acreage. A full description of the new Census definition of urban areas can be found in the Federal Register

(HUD/BOC, 2002).

3 Other grassland pasture and nonforested range (excludes cropland used only for pasture and grazed forest land). 4 Excludes an estimated 98 million forest acres in parks and other special uses of land. 5 Includes land specified in table 9. Data for all 50 States are not available until 1959. 6 Includes areas in miscellaneous uses not inventoried, marshes, open swamps, bare rock areas, desert, tundra, and other land generally having low value for agricultural purposes. 7 Totals differ over time due to remeasurement of the land area. Distribution of land uses may not add to totals due to rounding.

Sources: DOI/BLM, 2003; DOT/BTS, 2004; DOT/FAA, 2002; DOT/FHWA, 2002; DOT/FRA, 2004; USDA/FS 1989, 1998; DOI/FWS, 2001; GSA,

2001; GDT, 2000; USDA/NASS, 2004a, 2004b, 2005; DOI/NPS, 2002; HUD/BOC, 1992, 2002, 2003; USDA/NRCS, 2000, 2004a; and WI, 2002.

Estimates prior to 2002 are from Vesterby and Krupa, 2001; Daugherty, 1991, 1995; Frey, 1973, 1979, 1982; Frey and Hexem, 1985; Frey et al.,

1968; and Wooten et al., 1962. The estimates are not strictly comparable.
In maintaining the Major Land Uses series, ERS attempts to use a consistent

methodology for measuring land use, but tradeoffs are sometimes necessary

between consistency and accuracy. As new and improved data become available and are incorporated into the estimates, some of the land-use estimates

may change relative to previous years, and it may not be possible to revise

all of the historical estimates accordingly. Some of the changes in estimates

between 1997 and 2002 reflect differences on paper rather than differences

in actual land use. Most strikingly, land in urban areas is estimated at 60

million acres in 2002, compared with an estimated 66 million acres in 1997.

This decline is due to a change in the criteria used to define urban areas in

the 2000 Census (see “Urban and Rural Residential Uses,” p. 28). After

adjusting earlier estimates for the new criteria, the estimated urban area

increased by about 13 percent between 1990 and 2002. Similarly, some of

the 11-million-acre increase in the estimates for special-use areas from 1997

to 2002 reflects changes in data on transportation lands and farmsteads,

rather than actual changes in land use.

Changes in land-use estimates for one category necessarily imply changes in

estimates for other land uses, given the fixed amount of total land. Though

all land-use categories require reconciliation among sources at the State

level, some categories in the Major Land Uses series are adjusted more than

others based on the residual amount of land after other uses are tabulated.

These categories are miscellaneous and other land and, to some extent,

grassland pasture and range. For example, the reclassification of land from

urban to rural areas from 1997 to 2002 may account for the estimated 1-

percent increase in grassland pasture and range areas, for which less reliable

data sources are available relative to cropland and forest-use areas. Similarly, the improved measurement of transportation lands in the special-use

category may account for some of the 3-percent decline in the estimated

area in miscellaneous other land uses. In general, more confidence should

be afforded the broader land-use trends over decades rather than any particular 5-year fluctuations.

The National Resources Inventory (NRI), conducted by USDA’s Natural

Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) in cooperation with Iowa State

University, is an alternative source of estimated changes in land use for the

contiguous 48 States. While the NRI does not account for all land use

(Federal land and Alaska are omitted) and does not use the same definitions

or data gathering procedures as the Major Land Uses series, it samples individual points on the landscape and collects a range of information on soil

types and other physical characteristics.5 Between 1982 and 1997, the NRI

repeatedly sampled the same points every 5 years, allowing the construction

of land-use transition matrixes. Transition matrixes specify where each

inventoried change in land use came from and where it went. Since the 1997

survey, the NRI has sampled a smaller number of points on an annual basis.

Based on the new annual sample, NRCS provides annual estimates of

national land use and summary information on selected land-use

transitions.6

The NRI indicates a net decline in cultivated and uncultivated cropland area

of 8 million acres between 1997 and 2002 (table 3). During this period,

there were larger shifts of land both into and out of the cropland category.

6

Major Uses of Land in the United States, 2002/EIB-14

Economic Research Service/USDA

5 Information on urban land and water

bodies is collected for all of the NRI’s

primary sampling units, averaging 158

acres in size and covering about 2-6

percent of each county. Information on

other land uses is collected on two to

three sample points within each of

these primary sampling units (Nusser

et al., 1998).

6 Point-level data are publicly available for the 5-year NRI surveys,

enabling the analysis of three land-use

transitions for each sample point

(1982-87, 1987-92, 1992-97). At the

time of this study, point-level data

were not publicly available for the

annual surveys started in 2001.
Lands shifting into cropland from another use over 1997-2001 totaled 16.6

million acres, with half of the new cropland transitioning from pasture uses,

35 percent from CRP acreage, and 15 percent from all other uses. From

1997 to 2001, lands exiting the cropland category totaled 23.3 million, with

43 percent of the land shifting to pasture, 32 percent to CRP, 8 percent to

developed uses, and the remaining 17 percent to all other use categories.

Based on NRI data, the overall change in forest area from 1997 to 2001 was

not statistically different than zero. However, this apparent lack of change

masks larger flows of land to and from the forest category. Approximately

7.4 million acres of land transitioned to forests from 1997 to 2001, with 53

percent of the land coming from pasture, 16 percent from cropland, and 31

percent from other uses. At the same time, about 7.2 million acres of forest

lands transitioned to other uses, with 57 percent of the land shifting to urban

development, 17 percent to cropland, and 26 percent to other uses

(USDA/NRCS, 2003). 

The land-use acreage totals and net changes in land use indicated by NRI

differ from the Major Land Uses estimates due to the differences in

coverage and definitions (tables 2-3). The NRI estimate for large urban

and built-up areas was 77.6 million acres in 2001. In addition, the NRI

estimates 6.7 million acres of small built-up areas. Together, the NRI estimates 84.3 million acres of built-up land. This number is significantly less

than the ERS estimate of 154 million acres of urban and rural residential

land. 

The Major Land Uses (MLU) series estimates a decline in total cropland of

20 million acres over 1982-2002, which is equivalent to the NRI estimated

change in cropland for this period if CRP and cropland are combined (CRP

is classed as idle cropland in MLU but as a distinct land use in NRI). MLU

indicates that cropland pasture and grassland pasture and range declined by

13 million acres, compared with a decline of 24 million acres in the NRI.

MLU’s inclusion of Federal lands, comprising more than a quarter of grassland pasture and range lands (see “Major Uses of Land, by Class of Ownership” p. 35), may account for this difference. For forest land, NRI shows an

increase of almost 2 million acres from 1982 to 2002, in contrast to a

7

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Table 3

Land use in the 48 contiguous States: National Resources Inventory estimates

Conservation Water

Reserve Forest Forest Other and

Program Pasture Range land land rural Developed Federal

Year Cropland (CRP) 1 land land grazed ungrazed land 2 land 3 areas Total 4

------Million acres------

1982 419.6 0 131.0 415.5 64.6 338.4 48.0 72.8 447.7 1,937.7

1987 406.2 13.8 127.2 409.3 62.7 341.7 48.6 79.0 449.3 1,937.7

1992 381.2 34 125.1 406.6 61.7 342.3 49.3 86.5 450.9 1,937.7

1997 376.4 32.7 119.5 404.9 58.2 346.5 50.3 97.6 451.6 1,937.7

2002 368.4 31.6 117.3 405.3 55.1 349.8 50.6 107.3 452.3 1,937.7

1 Initiated by the Farm Security Act of 1985. 2 Includes small and large urban built-up land as well as rural transportation land (see Appendix for complete descriptions of the different landuse categories). 3 A National Resources Inventory (NRI) category including farmsteads and other farm structures, field windbreaks, barren land, and marshland. 4 Distributions may not add to totals due to rounding.

Sources: USDA/NRCS, 2003, 2004a.
decrease of 4 million acres in forest-use land in the MLU series. MLU

includes public and Alaskan land in the forest-use category, excludes

forested land in parks and other special uses, and employs different estimation procedures than NRI.

The MLU special-uses category increased by 27 million acres over 1982-

2002. Much of the MLU special-use land has no similar category in the

NRI, but is included in NRI's forest land, other rural land, developed land

(which includes rural transportation uses), and Federal areas. These comparisons serve to emphasize that the Major Land Uses estimates include land

use for all land in the United States, including Federal land and all 50

States.

8

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Basic Regional Land-Use Patterns

Land-use patterns vary greatly by region, reflecting differences in soils,

climate, topography, and patterns of population settlement. For example,

cropland accounts for 12 percent of the total land in the Northeast and 58

percent in the Corn Belt (table 4; see fig. 3 for a map of the Farm Production Regions used in this report; see Appendix for detailed descriptions of

terms in bold).7 In similar fashion, there is variation among States within a

region (fig. 4). Almost two-thirds of North Dakota is cropland, compared

with 43 percent in South Dakota.

There are some clear regional patterns in land use. Cropland is roughly

concentrated in the central regions of the contiguous United States, with the

Northern Plains and Corn Belt having the majority of their land in cropland,

and the Southern Plains, Lake States, and Delta States also having cropland

shares above the national average. Limited precipitation in semiarid areas

means that a large proportion of the land in the West is most suitable for

grazing. The Mountain region and Southern Plains have the majority of their

land in grassland pasture and range. The Northern Plains and Pacific

regions also have relatively high shares of grazing acreage, with more than

one-third and one-quarter of their land area, respectively, allocated to grassland and pasture and range. Forest-use land is most prevalent in the Eastern

regions such as the Northeast, Appalachian, Southeast, and Delta States,

which have a majority of their land in forest uses. In addition, forest-use

7 ERS constructed a set of Farm

Resource Regions (USDA/ERS, 2000)

to be used, when possible, in place of

the Farm Production Regions. Farm

Resource Regions require county-level

data, which are not available for most

land classes in the State-based Major

Land Uses series.

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Table 4

Major uses of land by region, 2002

Grassland Special uses

pasture and Forest-use and misc. Urban Total

Region 1 Cropland 2 range 3 land 4 other land area land area 5

Mil. Mil. Mil. Mil. Mil. Mil.

acres Pct. acres Pct. acres Pct. acres Pct. acres Pct. acres Pct.

Northeast 13.7 12.3 3.0 2.7 65.5 58.9 16.8 15.1 12.3 11.1 111.4 100

Lake States 42.1 34.5 5.4 4.4 49.0 40.2 21.4 17.5 4.2 3.4 122.1 100

Corn Belt 95.7 58.2 13.1 7.9 31.3 19.0 16.5 10.0 8.0 4.9 164.6 100

Northern Plains 102.0 52.5 71.0 36.6 4.3 2.2 15.9 8.2 1.0 0.5 194.3 100

Appalachian 26.0 21.0 6.3 5.1 71.5 57.8 13.4 10.8 6.5 5.3 123.7 100

Southeast 14.8 12.0 8.3 6.7 73.7 59.7 17.8 14.5 8.7 7.1 123.3 100

Delta States 21.0 23.1 6.2 6.8 50.7 55.5 11.0 12.1 2.3 2.5 91.2 100

Southern Plains 55.7 26.3 115.8 54.7 18.0 8.5 16.7 7.9 5.3 2.5 211.5 100

Mountain 46.3 8.4 302.8 55.3 116.8 21.3 78.3 14.3 3.7 0.7 547.9 100

Pacific 23.9 11.7 52.3 25.7 78.3 38.4 42.1 20.7 7.1 3.5 203.8 100

48 States 4 441.3 23.3 584.2 30.8 559.1 29.5 250.0 13.2 59.2 3.1 1,893.8 100

Alaska 0.1 0.0 1.3 0.4 90.5 24.7 274.0 74.9 0.2 0.0 366.0 100

Hawaii 0.2 4.5 1.0 24.4 1.6 37.8 1.1 27.8 0.2 5.5 4.1 100

United States 4 441.6 19.5 586.5 25.9 651.2 28.8 525.1 23.3 59.6 2.6 2,264.0 100

1 See fig. 3 for a map of the Farm Production Regions used in this report. 2 Includes cropland used for crops, cropland used only for pasture, and idle cropland. 3 Open permanent pasture and range, both in farms and not in farms, excluding cropland pasture. 4 Includes forests grazed but excludes an estimated 98 million forest acres in parks and other special uses of land. 5 Distribution of land uses and percentages may not add to totals due to rounding.

Sources: DOI/BLM, 2003; DOT/BTS, 2004; DOT/FAA, 2002; DOT/FHWA, 2002; DOT/FRA, 2004; USDA/FS 1989, 1998; DOI/FWS, 2001; GSA,

2001; GDT, 2000; HUD/BOC, 1992, 2002, 2003; USDA/NASS, 2004a, 2004b, 2005; DOI/NPS, 2002; USDA/NRCS, 2000, 2004a; and WI, 2002.
land constitutes a relatively high share of land in the Lake States and Pacific

regions where the topography and precipitation patterns are also conducive

to growing trees. The Northeast and Southeast have the highest shares of

urban land, while the Lake States, Corn Belt, Appalachian, and Pacific

regions also have urban shares above the Nation’s average. 

10

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Figure 3

USDA farm production regions

Pacific 

Mountain 

Appalachia 

Delta 

Northern 

Plains 

Southern 

Plains 

Corn Belt 

Southeast 

Northeast Lake 

Source: Economic Research Service, USDA. 
11

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Figure 4

Shares of land in major uses, 48 contiguous United States, 2002

Note: The size of the pie charts is proportional to the land area in each State. Shares for Alaska are 25% in forest-use land, 75% 

in special uses/urban/other land, and less than 0.5% in all other uses. Shares for Hawaii are 5% in cropland, 24% in grassland 

pasture and range, 38% in forest use, and 33% in special uses/urban/other land. 

Source: USDA/ERS Major Land Uses data series, 2005 (http://www.ers.usda.gov/data/majorlanduses/).

Land-use shares

Cropland

Grassland pasture and range

Forest-use land

Special uses/urban/other land
Cropland

Cropland includes five components: cropland harvested, crop failure,

cultivated summer fallow, cropland pasture, and idle cropland (see

Appendix for detailed descriptions of terms in bold). Cropland harvested,

crop failure, and cultivated summer fallow comprise the total amount of

cropland used for crops, or the acreage devoted to crop production in any

year. Cropland pastured and idle cropland are not directly involved in crop

production in a given year, but may rotate into production in another year. 

Cropland Used for Crops

In 2002, the last year in which total cropland was inventoried by the Census

of Agriculture, about 340 million acres, or 77 percent of the Nation's cropland base, were used for crops (table 1). Acreage used for crops was largest

in the Northern Plains, followed by the Corn Belt, Lake States, Mountain,

and Southern Plains regions. As a proportion of total cropland, cropland

used for crops was above the national average in the Corn Belt, Lake States,

Northern Plains, and Northeast, and below average in the Pacific, Mountain,

Southern Plains, Delta States, Southeast, and Appalachia regions. Proportions ranged from a high of 87 percent in the Corn Belt to 56 percent in the

Southern Plains region (see Major Land Uses data series for cropland

acreage by region and State from 1945 to 2002:

http://www.ers.usda.gov/data/majorlanduses/). 

Cropland harvested, the dominant component of the acreage used for crops,

includes row and closely sown crops, tree fruits and nuts, and vegetables.

Cropland harvested totaled 307 million acres in 2002, down from 321

million acres in 1997 (table 5). The decrease in cropland harvested, and the

12

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Table 5

Major uses of cropland, selected years, 1949-2002

Cropland used for crops Cropland Total

Year Harvested Failed Fallowed 1 Total 2 Idle 3 pasture 4 cropland 2

Million acres

1949 352 9 22 383 26 69 478

1954 339 13 28 380 19 66 465

1959 318 10 31 359 33 66 458

1964 292 6 37 335 52 57 444

1969 286 6 41 333 51 88 472

1974 322 8 31 361 21 83 465

1978 330 7 32 369 26 76 471

1982 347 5 31 383 21 65 469

1987 293 6 32 331 68 65 464

1992 306 8 24 338 56 67 460

1997 321 7 21 349 39 68 455

2002 307 17 16 340 40 62 442

1 Cultivated summer fallow. 2 Distribution may not add to totals due to rounding. 3 Includes all acreage diverted from crops under the Acreage Reduction Program (ARP), the

Conservation Reserve Program (CRP), and other Federal acreage reduction programs shown

in figure 5. 4 Cropland used only for pasture.

Sources: Estimates from 2002 are from USDA/NASS, 2004a, 2004b, 2005. Estimates prior to

2002 are from Daugherty, 1991, 1995; Frey, 1973, 1979, 1982; Frey and Hexem, 1985; Frey et

al., 1968; Vesterby and Krupa, 2001; Wooten et al., 1962; Wooten and Anderson, 1957; and

Wooten, 1953.
resulting increase in crop failure, was partly the result of severe drought in

some parts of the country in 2002. Crop failure occurred on 17.1 million

acres, about 5 percent of the acreage planted for harvest in 2002. This

failure rate was well above average for recent years. From 1945 to 2002, the

rate of cropland failure averaged less than 3 percent. The rate of cropland

failure in 2002 was the highest since 1956, and before that, the Dust Bowl

years of the 1930s. Forty-three percent of the failed acreage in 2002

occurred in the Northern Plains. High crop failure rates also occurred in the

Southern Plains and Mountain States, which account for 20 and 19 percent,

respectively, of all failed acreage in the United States (see Major Land Uses

data series for regional and State-level data on cropland failure from 1910 to

2002: http://www.ers.usda.gov/data/majorlanduses/).

As with cropland used for crops, harvested acreage was above the national

average (70 percent of total cropland) in the Corn Belt, Lake States, and

Northeast; about average in the Delta States, Northern Plains, and Pacific

regions; and below average in the Southeast, Appalachian, Mountain, and

Southern Plains regions. In 2002, the proportion of cropland harvested

ranged from 47 percent in the Mountain States to 86 percent in the Corn

Belt. The Mountain States and Southern Plains had higher proportions of

cropland pasture and idle cropland than other regions, accounting for lower

than average rates of harvested cropland.

Cultivated summer fallow refers to cropland in sub-humid regions that is

cultivated for a season or more to control weeds and accumulate moisture

before small grains are planted. Summer fallow is used extensively in the

semiarid West. The use of summer fallow has been decreasing since the late

1960s. In 2002, summer fallow was at 16 million acres, down from a 15-

year high of 32 million acres in 1987 and 25 million acres lower than 1969.

More than 41 percent of summer fallow acres are in the Northern Plains

region, 39 percent in the Mountain region, and the remainder in the Pacific

and Southern Plains regions.

Other Cropland

The remainder of total cropland—that portion not used for crops— was

used for pasture (62 million acres) or was idle (40 million acres) in 2002. In

contrast to permanent grassland pasture and range, cropland pasture is

considered to be in a crop rotation. Much of the cropland used for pasture is

routinely rotated between crop and pasture use, although the rotation period

varies. Part of the acreage, however, is marginal for crop use and may

remain in pasture indefinitely. 

Cropland used for pasture accounted for nearly 14 percent of all cropland in

2002. The largest acreages were in the Southern and Northern Plains, and

the Mountain States, regions that also had the highest rates of crop failure.

Some cropland, which would have otherwise failed due to the drought, was

probably grazed and counted as cropland pasture. 

The reason for pasturing cropland varied between regions. Cropland pasture

acreage in the Corn Belt and adjacent areas reflects the high proportion of

land classified as cropland. On many farms in this region, the only land

13

Major Uses of Land in the United States, 2002/EIB-14

Economic Research Service/USDA
available for pasture may be good quality cropland. In contrast, cropland

pasture in the Plains regions and much of the South is associated with

higher proportions of marginal cropland.

Idle cropland includes both land completely idled and land seeded to cover

or soil improvement crops, such as buckwheat and clover, but not harvested

or pastured. Idle cropland totaled 40 million acres in 2002, about 9 percent

of U.S. cropland. This amount nearly equals the U.S. historical average of

38 million acres since the major land-use series began in 1945. Regionally,

the idle portion of cropland ranged from 6 percent in the Northeast to 17

percent in the Mountain States. Some cropland is idle each year because of

adverse weather and soil conditions at planting time or lack of economic

incentives. About 85 percent of the land idled in 2002 was under the

Conservation Reserve Program (CRP). In 1992, 35 million of the estimated

56 million acres of idle land were in the CRP. Most of the remainder was in

annual acreage reduction programs, which were discontinued in 1996. Some

CRP land may be planted to trees, but is still classed as idle cropland due to

limited data on forest coverage on CRP acreage.8 About 1 million acres of

land classed as idle in 2002 was enrolled in the Wetland Reserve Program, a

Federal program offering landowners financial incentives to remove

frequently flooded land from agricultural production (USDA/NRCS,

2004b). 

Trends in Cropland Uses

Cropland acreage has remained relatively constant since World War II, but

has declined slowly in recent decades. A drop from 478 million acres in

1949 to 444 million acres in 1964 was largely the result of surplus production and subsequent acreage reduction programs. Cropland acreage was at

or above 455 million acres in each census year from 1969 to 1997 (table 5).

Between 1997 and 2002, total cropland dropped 13 million acres (about 3

percent) to 442 million acres, the lowest since the Major Uses of Land

(MLU) series began in 1945 and 2 million acres less than the previous low

in 1964. 

The sum of cropland used for crops plus idle cropland has followed similar

cycles, declining 25 million acres from 1949 to 1969, increasing 20 million

acres from 1969 to 1982, and then falling from 404 million acres in 1982 to

a 57-year low of 380 million acres in 2002. Idle cropland includes acreage

fallowed but not harvested all year as well as acreage diverted from crops

under the CRP (initiated in 1985) and other Federal acreage reduction

programs (in effect prior to 1996).

Although the total acreage classified as cropland has slowly declined over

recent decades, other changes have occurred in component acreages. These

changes largely reflect the absence or presence, and extent, of set-aside

requirements for Federal crop programs. Federal program enrollments, in

turn, reflect the status of supply and demand relationships for agricultural

products as well as changes in Federal farm policies.

Cropland acreage used for crops has been subject to greater short-term variations than either total cropland or cropland used for crops plus idle land

14

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8 All CRP land is classified as idle

cropland due to the difficulty of

assessing the level of forest cover on

CRP lands. In 2002, approximately 2.6

million CRP acres nationwide were

enrolled under practices requiring tree

planting, riparian buffers, and maintenance of existing trees. Additional

trees may have existed on other CRP

lands, such as 2.3 million acres managed for wildlife cover in 2002

(USDA/FSA, 2003). 
(see “Major Land Uses” data product for annual national-level data on cropland used for crops, including cropland harvested, crop failure, and summer

fallow, since 1910: http://www.ers.usda.gov/data/majorlanduses/). After

falling from 383 million acres to 333 million acres from 1949 to 1969, cropland used for crops increased to 383 million acres by 1982 and then fell

sharply to a 57-year low of 331 million acres in 1987. Cropland acreage

used for crops increased by 18 million acres (5 percent) from 1987 to 1997,

before declining 9 million acres (2 percent) during 1997-2002. The area of

cropland used for crops in 2002 was 340 million acres, 11 percent below the

1982 and 1949 highs and about 5 percent below the average of 360 million

acres for 1910-97. Nevertheless, cropland used for crops in 2002 remained

13 million acres (5 percent) above the 1988 low of 327 million acres.

There is an inverse relationship between two of the components of total

cropland: as idled cropland increases, cropland used for crops decreases,

and vice versa. Cropland used for crops was at a record high of 383 million

acres in 1949 when no acres were idled by Federal programs (table 5, fig.

5). In 1972, cropland used for crops was at a near record low of 334 million

acres when Federal programs idled 61 million acres. The area under Federal

15

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Economic Research Service/USDA

Figure 5

Cropland acreage reductions by program type, 1933-2004

Note: For yearly detail of programs, 1974-95, see USDA/ERS, 1997. “Acreage reduction programs” include Acreage 

Conservation Reserve; 0, 50/85-82 programs; Paid Land Diversion; and Payment-in-Kind programs. Land under these programs 

is classified as idled cropland in the Major Land Uses estimates.

Source: Crosswhite and Sandretto, 1991; updated by USDA/ERS based on USDA/FSA, 2005.

p g y p g yp ,

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

90

Million acres

Conservation Adjustment Act Program

Agricultural Conservation Program

Soil Bank

Acreage reduction programs

Cropland Adjustment Program

Conservation Reserve Program

1933 40 50 60 70 80 90 2000 04
16

Major Uses of Land in the United States, 2002/EIB-14

Economic Research Service/USDA

cropland acreage reduction programs decreased to less than 3 million acres

in 1974 (fig. 5). This decline was accompanied by a 27-million acre (8

percent) increase in cropland used for crops. Cropland used for crops

climbed to 387 million acres in 1981 when Federal programs did not idle

any cropland, and dropped to 333 million acres in 1983 when Federal

program set-aside acres reached their historic peak of 78 million acres.

Between 1987 and 2002, cropland used for crops increased overall while

acreage idled by Federal programs decreased from 76 million acres to just

under 34 million acres. Cropland used for crops declined from 349 million

acres in 1997 to about 340 million acres in 2004, while acreage idled under

Federal programs increased by 200,000 acres, all under CRP.

The general magnitude and trend of the annual changes in cropland used for

crops correspond to changes in the land area idled under Federal acreagereduction programs. Land area under acreage reduction programs has fluctuated inversely with commodity prices, while cropland used for crops has

varied together with prices (fig. 6). Declines in real inflation-adjusted prices

appear to be followed by increases in idled acreage and corresponding

decreases in cropland used for crops, and vice versa. This relationship is

consistent with a response by commodity producers to changing market

incentives and with government efforts to manage commodity supplies and

support farm incomes under adverse market conditions.9

Though cropland used for crops has tended to follow trends in prices of

major crop commodities, the relative changes in acreage are smaller than the

relative changes in prices (fig. 6). Between 1980 and 2002, the prices of

major commodities declined by over 60 percent in inflation-adjusted terms,

while total cropland used for crops dropped by about 6 percent. Productivity

increases might have mitigated some of the effect of real price declines on

the real returns to crop production. The variation in cropland used for crops

in the 1990s was also smaller than in the 1980s, despite significant variation

in real prices. This pattern may reflect the phasing out and elimination in

1996 of Federal acreage-reduction programs other than CRP. The pattern

may also reflect the fact that, as the area of cropland used for crops

declines, the remaining cropland is generally of higher average quality and

less likely to move in and out of production with short-term price

fluctuations.

A number of major changes in farm program policy could also have influenced agricultural land-use decisions during this period. Farm legislation in

the 1980s and 1990s marked a shift toward greater market orientation, with

the addition of income-supporting (rather than price-supporting) commodity

loan programs in 1985 and the introduction of planting flexibility on acres

qualifying for commodity program payments in 1990. The Federal Agriculture Improvement and Reform (FAIR) Act of 1996 subsequently eliminated

acreage set-aside requirements and virtually all cropping restrictions that

had been in effect under previous farm programs. The FAIR Act also

replaced commodity payments directly tied to current planting decisions

with payments tied to historic production choices (Nelson and Schertz,

1996). Meanwhile, the Federal Crop Insurance and Reform Act (FCIRA) of

1994 increased Federal crop insurance premium subsidies, and additional

increases were introduced in 2000. Total premium subsidies per insured acre

9 See Roberts et al. (2004) for a discussion of the countercyclical nature

of Federal farm payments and the role

of government farm programs in insuring producer risks.
almost doubled from 1993 to 2000, while the total level of subsidies paid

increased from about $200 million to $1.3 billion (Glauber and Collins,

2002). Although these legislative initiatives changed the policy environment

for crop production, total cropland acreage has changed little relative to

historic trends.

Changes in cropland harvested parallel changes in cropland used for crops,

except when the latter is affected by abnormally large changes in crop

failure and cultivated summer fallow. Thus, the 1949-2002 totals vary

between 286 million and 352 million acres, a range slightly wider than the

range in cropland used for crops over the same period, which was 331

million to 387 million acres.

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Notes: Real (inflation-adjusted) prices are plotted with a 1-year lag to better track incentives at 

the time of planting. Prices and land areas are indexed to 1 for 1980 to illustrate relative time 

trends. To construct the index for land in acreage reduction programs, this acreage is scaled as 

a share of the acreage in cropland used for crops in 1980, plus a constant that shifts this share 

up to 1 in the base year. As a result, equal percentage changes in the two cropland indexes 

indicate equivalent changes in land area. 

Source: USDA/ERS, using prices from the National Agricultural Statistics Service deflated with 

the producer price index for all commodities from the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Figure 6

Cropland used for crops and commodity prices of key crops

Real price and cropland indices

1980 1985 1990 1995 2000

0.0

0.2

0.4

0.6

0.8

1.0

1.2

Cropland used for crops

Land in acreage reduction programs

Corn price

Soybean price

Wheat price
Estimates of cultivated summer fallow peaked at 41 million acres in 1969.

In 1997, cultivated summer fallow totaled 21 million acres. Summer fallow

occurs mostly in the Plains States where it is used in alternate years with

small grains, primarily wheat, to conserve moisture and control weeds.

Since 1969, summer fallow has declined and leveled off at about 31 million

acres from 1973 through 1987. It has since gradually declined to approximately 15 million acres in 2004. Wetter years (which diminish the need for

moisture-retaining summer fallow), better wheat varieties, and improved

cultivation practices have contributed to this decrease.

The long-term decline in the area under cultivated summer fallow is partly

attributed to the adoption of moisture-conserving soil conservation practices,

such as no-till and mulch-till, which have reduced the need for summer

fallow. With less summer fallow, farm operators can use more land to grow

crops, increasing farm income potential. Some of the decrease in summer

fallow may also be attributable to the Conservation Reserve Program (CRP).

Much of the CRP acreage is in the Great Plains region, where summer

fallow is most commonly practiced. Land taken out of production and

placed in the CRP includes some land that might otherwise have been in

summer fallow. 

Land marked by crop failure has ranged between 5 million and 22 million

acres since 1945. The possibility of a large acreage failure is always present.

Crop failure was around 10 million acres in 1988, 1993, 1996, 1998, 2000,

and 2001 due to severe drought, extensive flooding, or wet weather. The 17

million acres of crop failure in 2002 were the highest since the extensive

droughts of 1956. Moderate to extreme drought reached more than half of

the contiguous United States during the summer of 2002 (DOC/NOAA). 

Total idled acreage in 2002 was almost 1 million acres (2 percent) higher

than in 1997, due mainly to an expansion of CRP. Idled cropland increased

during the 1950s and 1960s when acreage shifted from crop production,

then declined in the early 1970s as acreage returned to production (table 5).

Since 1987, idled acreage has ranged from 39 million to 68 million acres—

between two and three times the 1974-82 levels—in response to increased

enrollments in Federal crop programs and as a result of lands retired under

10- to 15-year CRP contracts. 

Cropland used for pasture was 68 million acres in 1997, compared with a

high of 88 million acres in 1969 and a low of 57 million acres in 1964

(table 5). These acreage figures may not be strictly comparable, primarily

because of inconsistent classifications between cropland pasture and permanent grassland pasture.

Irrigated land reached a record-high of 56 million acres in 1997 and

declined about 1 million acres nationally between 1997 and 2002 (see

http://www.ers.usda.gov/data/majorlanduses/ for irrigated land acreage in

2002 by region and State). Irrigated land has increased nearly 9 million

acres (19 percent) since 1987, while total cropland decreased over the same

period by 22 million acres, or nearly 5 percent (table 2). Irrigated land in

1997 was at record-high levels for every region except the Southern Plains

and Mountain States. Between 1997 and 2002, irrigated land decreased in

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all regions except for the Delta States, where it reached a high of 6 million

acres in 2002.

Regional Changes in Cropland 

Used for Crops

While the area of cropland used for crops declined between 1997 and 2002,

cropland used for crops increased by almost 5 million acres, or 1.4 percent,

from 1964 to 2002. At the same time, sharp downward shifts occurred in

some regions and larger increases in others. This further concentrated

acreage used for crops in major crop-producing regions. 

Cropland used for crops in the Northeast, Northern Plains, Southeast,

Southern Plains, Mountain, and Pacific regions declined 12 million acres

from 1964 to 2002, but increased by 17 million acres in the remaining

regions (see Major Land Uses data series for trends by region and State:

http://www.ers.usda.gov/data/majorlanduses/). Sixty-three percent of the

1964-2002 increase, nationally, occurred in the Corn Belt. The net gains

from 1964 to 2002 are attributable to conversion from grassland pasture and

range and transfers from cropland pasture acreage in the Corn Belt and

Delta States regions. 

For some regions, changes in cropland used for crops represent year-to-year

fluctuations that tend to balance out over time. For others, the long-term

trend has been more dramatic. The Northeast has experienced a long-term

decline in cropland used for crops. Cropland used for crops encompassed 11

million acres in the Northeast in 2002, equal to 3 percent of total cropland

used for crops in the contiguous 48 States. This compares to 21 million

acres in 1945, equal to 6 percent of the 48 States’ acreage of cropland used

for crops. Urban pressures and a comparative disadvantage in many crops

have resulted in the conversion of Northeast cropland to other uses. Between

1997 and 2002, however, cropland used for crops increased almost 1 million

acres (about 7 percent) in the Northeast, slightly increasing the region’s

share of the contiguous 48-State total.

Changes in Principal Crops Harvested

Trends in crops harvested are closely associated with levels of cropland

diverted from production through Federal programs (fig. 5). In 1963, 56

million acres of cropland were diverted through the Soil Bank and acreage

reduction programs, but Federal programs diverted no cropland in 1980-81.

Strong growth in the export market and rapid expansions through doublecropping of soybeans and small grains marked the 1970s and early 1980s.

The harvested acreage of principal crops increased by 68 million acres

during 1963-81, then decreased by almost 56 million acres from 1981 to

2002. The CRP diverted almost 34 million acres from production in 2002

(USDA/FSA, 2003). The harvested acreage of principal crops peaked at 354

million acres in 1981, when no cropland was diverted.

Federal programs diverted a record 78 million acres in 1988, which brought

harvested acres down to a low of 287 million acres. Since then, Federal

program acreages have declined. In 1999, diverted acreage totaled just 30

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million in the Conservation Reserve Program, and harvested area reached

316 million acres. It might be expected that cropland harvested would

increase in direct proportion to the cropland coming out of Federal

programs. However, the increase in harvested acres from 1988 to 2002, 29

million acres, did not match the 47-million-acre decrease in Federal

programs, probably due to poor market conditions and weather-related crop

failures in the 1990s. 

The 1963-81 and 1981-2002 periods also exhibit changes in the mix of

crops. Of food crops, only soybeans, some of which were double-cropped,

registered substantial increases over time. Soybean acreage more than

doubled from about 29 million acres in 1963 to over 72 million acres in

2002, surpassing wheat as the second-leading U.S. crop in acreage terms

and almost matching the corn acreage (table 6). Wheat acreage, some of

which was double-cropped ahead of soybeans, increased by 35 million acres

between 1963 and 1981 but then dropped back to near-1963 levels between

1981 and 2002. 

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Table 6

Principal crops harvested, 48 contiguous States

Change

Crop 1963 1981 1992 1997 2002 1963-81 1981-2002

Million acres

Food crops

Wheat 45.5 80.6 62.8 62.8 45.8 35.1 -34.8

Soybeans 28.6 66.2 58.2 69.1 72.2 37.6 6.0

Rice 1.8 3.8 3.1 3.1 3.2 2.0 -0.6

Rye 1.6 0.7 0.4 0.3 0.3 -0.9 -0.4

Peanuts 1.4 1.5 1.7 1.4 1.3 0.1 -0.2

Sunflowers NR 3.8 2.0 2.8 2.2 3.8 -1.6

Dry edible beans 1.4 2.2 1.5 1.8 1.7 0.8 -0.5

Dry edible peas 0.3 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.3 -0.2 0.2

Potatoes 1.3 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.3 -0.1 0.1

Sweet potatoes 0.2 0.1 0.1 0.1 0.1 -0.1 0.0

Sugar beets 1.2 1.2 1.4 1.4 1.4 0 0.2

Sugarcane 0.5 0.7 0.9 0.9 1.0 0.2 0.3

Total 83.8 162.1 133.6 145.4 130.8 78.3 -31.3

Feed crops

Corn, all 68.3 83.2 78.1 78.7 76.8 14.9 -6.4

Sorghum, all 17.0 15.5 12.0 9.6 7.7 -1.5 -7.8

Oats 21.3 9.4 4.5 2.8 2.1 -11.9 -7.3

Barley 11.2 9 7.3 6.2 4.1 -2.2 -4.9

Hay 66.4 59.6 58.9 61.1 64.5 -6.8 4.9

Total 184.2 176.7 154.8 158.4 155.2 -7.5 -21.5

Other crops

Cotton 14.2 13.8 11.1 13.4 12.4 -0.4 -1.4

Flaxseed 3.2 0.6 0.2 0.1 0.1 -2.6 -0.5

Tobacco 1.2 1.0 0.8 0.8 0.1 -0.2 -0.9

Total 18.6 15.4 12.1 14.3 12.6 -3.2 -2.8

Total 1 286.6 354.2 300.5 318.1 298.6 67.6 -55.6

NR = Not reported.

1 Distributions may not add due to rounding.

Sources: Compiled by USDA/ERS, based on principal crops harvested from Daugherty, 1995;

USDA/NASS, 1999b, 2005.
Total food crop production increased by 93 percent between 1963 and 1981,

from 84 to 162 million acres. Feed crops, on the other hand, declined by

nearly 8 million acres (4 percent). Other crops—cotton, flaxseed, and

tobacco—declined by more than 3 million acres (17 percent). During 1981-

2002, the acreage of food crops declined by 19 percent, almost entirely from

wheat. Feed crops declined by 12 percent, with oats declining almost 78

percent. The amount of other crops harvested also continued to drop.

Cotton, accounting for 92 percent of other crop acreage, declined by 10

percent from 1981 to 2002, while flaxseed and cotton acreage each declined

by over 80 percent. 

Market forces and perhaps changes in farm programs have affected the

supply and demand for the four agricultural crops (corn, soybeans, wheat,

and hay) that comprise 80 percent of total harvested acres in the United

States. The harvested acreage of soybeans has increased almost 17 percent

since 1996, while wheat acreage decreased by about 21 percent and corn by

2 percent. Harvested hay acreage increased by almost 2 percent. The

increase in planting flexibility, introduced with the Food, Agriculture,

Conservation, and Trade Act of 1990 and culminating with the FAIR Act of

1996, allowed producers to increase more profitable soybean acreage

without losing base acreage of wheat, corn, and other program crops, which

could have been costly under previous farm programs. In addition, new varieties of corn and soybeans have allowed expansion of these crops into previously wheat-producing areas of the Plains States (USDA/ERS, 2004). 

21

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Grazing Land

Nearly 35 percent of U.S. land area, 782 million acres in 2002, is grazing

land—cropland pasture, grassland pasture and range, and forest land

grazed (table 1; see Appendix for detailed descriptions of terms in bold).

While this estimate of total grazing area includes forest land on which

grazing occurs as a multiple use, the estimate excludes land grazed before or

after crops were harvested. Examples include fall and winter grazing of

small grains and after-harvest grazing of hay land. The three types of

grazing land measured differed greatly in terms of acreage, distribution,

productivity, and other characteristics. (See Daugherty, 1989, for an

overview of U.S. grazing lands from 1950 to 1982.)

Cropland Pasture

The smallest but generally most productive component of grazing acreage,

cropland pasture, occupied 3 percent of total U.S. land area and accounted for

8 percent of total pasture and range acreage in 2002. While cropland pasture

is considered part of the cropland base, it may be marginal for crop use and

remain in pasture for extended periods. Two-thirds of the 62 million acres in

this category were concentrated in the Southern Plains, Corn Belt, Northern

Plains, and Appalachian regions. Cropland pasture comprises a relatively high

percentage of total pasture and range in the Appalachian, Corn Belt, Northeast, and Lake States regions. However, the share of land area in grassland

pasture and range is much higher in the Plains and Mountain regions than in

the East. Cropland pasture is significant in the West, but minor in comparison

to the acreages of grassland pasture and range and grazed forest land.

Cropland pasture may shift to cropland used for crops when commodity

prices are high. However, these shifts are much more frequent between idled

cropland and cropland used for crops because idled cropland is generally

more suited to crop production than cropland pasture. Also, these shifts may

be more pronounced in regions with higher quality cropland pasture, such as

the Corn Belt. 

Grassland Pasture and Range

Grazing is the predominant use on 586 million acres of grassland pasture

and range, over half of which is in the Mountain region ("grassland pasture"

is the name more commonly used in the eastern United States). Another 20

percent is in the Southern Plains. The Northern Plains and Pacific regions

together account for 20 percent. These four regions have about 542 million

acres (93 percent) of U.S. grassland pasture and range. The rest is distributed among the remaining regions, none of which have more than 2 percent

of the total. Of the types of grazing land, grassland pasture and range dominate in all regions except the Appalachian and Delta regions, where cropland pasture and forested grazing predominate, respectively.

Grassland pasture and range account for 55 percent of all land area in both

the Southern Plains and Mountain regions. Grazing of this varied cover type

accounts for 35 percent of the area in the Northern Plains, where a larger

proportion of the land area is used for crops, and 26 percent in the Pacific

22

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Economic Research Service/USDA
region, where forest-use land predominates. In other regions, except Hawaii,

the proportion of area in grassland pasture and range varied from 7 percent

in the Southeast to less than 1 percent in Alaska. Nearly a third of the land

in Hawaii is grazed, but because of the State's small size, grassland pasture

there contributes little to the total national acreage.

Grazed Forest Land 

The 134 million acres of grazed forest land include acreage in open forest,

land reverting to forest, and other forested areas with grass or other forage

growth that are grazed to some extent.10 Grazed forest land ranged from less

than 1 million acres in Alaska and Hawaii to 63 million acres in the Mountain region. Acreage of this pasture type is relatively high throughout the

West, Southwest, and South, but is the dominant type only in the Delta

States. Regional variations in the amount of grazed forest land are a function

of the productivity of forested grazing, the demand for grazing, the amount

of forest land, and factors such as species composition and stand density.

The value of forest land for grazing varies widely in the different regions,

depending on climate, soils, tree canopies, and other factors. Values are relatively high on open stands of pine in the South, for example, where climate

permits grazing throughout the year. Upland hardwoods, on the other hand,

with a more complete canopy, allow little production of forage, although

substantial acreage is grazed because of their availability on farms. Ponderosa

pine and other open forest types in the West enable seasonal grazing, but

forest land with thick growing trees, such as fir, offers little grazing value.

Trends in Grazing Acreage

Total grazing land in 2002 accounted for 783 million acres, the lowest

amount since the Major Land Uses series began in 1945. Total grazing land

declined by about 268 million acres (about 25 percent) from 1945 to 2002.11

Total nonforested grazing acreage (the combined acreage of cropland

pasture and grassland pasture and range) was just over 648 million acres in

2002. This was near the 1997 level, the lowest level since 1945 when it

totaled 706 million acres. Estimated acreage of grassland pasture and range

increased by almost 7 million acres from 1997 to 2002. However, acreage of

all grazing land declined from 1997 to 2002 (table 7). This continues a

downward trend that began in 1945. While cropland pasture and grassland

pasture and range have increased in some years, grazed forest land has

consistently declined. Cropland pasture and grazed forest land decreased by

6 million acres each from 1997 to 2002, which might reflect a transition of

cropland used for crops and pasture to permanent pasture as well as reclassification of urban land under the 2000 Census.

Pasture and range acreage sometimes converts to cropland when demand for

crop products is high. However, grazing lands may be less economically

suited for crop production than for other uses. Substantial acreages of land

used for grazing has shifted to recreational, wildlife, and environmental

uses. Under favorable growing conditions, particularly in the South, pasture

land may revert to forest. Some acres were converted to urban uses. These

forces have combined to cause a long-term net decline in pasture and range

10 Estimates of total grazed forest

acreage are based on acreage estimates

of active grazing allotments in national

forests, plus grazed acreage on nonfederally owned forests from the

Census of Agriculture and the National

Resources Inventory (NRI). These estimates require reconciliation of various

sources and thus depend on more

assumptions than estimates derived

from a single source, such as total forest acreage obtained from the Forest

Service.

11 Statistics for 1945 do not include

Alaska and Hawaii. Nevertheless,

these States have little influence on

total grazing acreage, accounting for

just 0.22 percent of the total grazing

area in 1949. 

23

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Economic Research Service/USDA
acreage, from over 1 billion acres in 1949 to 783 million acres in 2002

(table 7).

The combined acreage of cropland pasture and grassland pasture and range

declined from 1949 through 1997 for a net decrease of 54 million acres in

the 48 contiguous States. However, not all regions experienced long-term

declines in nonforested pasture and range (see Major Land Uses data series

for trends by region: http://www.ers.usda.gov/data/majorlanduses/). Between

1949 and 2002, pasture and range increased by 31 million acres in the

Southern Plains and 2 million acres in the Southeast. These increases offset

large declines in the Mountain (42 million acres) and Pacific regions (11

million acres). Increases in the regions east of the Rocky Mountains were

associated with declines in acreage used for crops and with clearing and

reclassification of forest land. A part of this increased acreage had been

classed as forested grazing land. Large decreases in the Western States

mainly involved Federal range that was withdrawn for wilderness and similar

areas, or that was reclassified as unsuitable for grazing.

Grazed forest land decreased by nearly 186 million acres, or 58 percent,

from 1949 to 2002 (table 7), and by 6 million acres during 1997-2002.

Among reasons for the long decline in forest grazing activity were fewer

farms and less land in farms, increases in forest stand density (restricting

grazing possibilities), and improvements in both livestock feeding and forest

management practices. All of these factors have been especially important in

the South, where woodland grazing acreages have been high.

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Table 7

Total pasture and range, by type, United States, 1949-2002

Cropland Grassland pasture Grazed forest

Year pasture 1 and range 2 Subtotal 3 land 4 Total 3

Million acres

1949 69 632 702 320 1,022

1954 66 634 700 301 1,001

1959 66 633 699 245 943

1964 57 640 698 225 922

1969 88 604 692 198 890

1974 83 598 681 179 860

1978 76 587 663 172 835

1982 65 597 662 158 820

1987 65 591 656 155 811

1992 67 591 658 145 803

1997 68 580 648 141 788

2002 62 587 648 134 783

1 Cropland used only for pasture estimate based on USDA/NASS, 2005. 2 Grassland and other nonforested pasture and range in farms (USDA/NASS, 1999a) plus estimates of open or nonforested grazing land not in farms. 3 Distribution may not add to totals due to rounding. 4 Woodland grazed in farms (USDA/NASS, 2004a) plus an approximation of forested grazing

on Federal and non-Federal land not in farms.

Sources: Estimates based on reports and records of the Bureau of the Census and Federal

and State land management and conservation agencies. The estimates are not strictly comparable. Estimates for 2002 based on DOI/BLM, 2003; USDA/FS 1989; GSA 2001; USDA/NASS,

2004a, 2004b, 2005; and USDA/NRCS, 2000, 2004a. Estimates for years prior to 2002 are

from Daugherty, 1989 and Frey, 1983 plus previous Major Land Uses reports: Daugherty,

1991, 1995; Frey, 1973, 1979, 1982; Frey and Hexem, 1985; Frey et al., 1968; Vesterby and

Krupa, 2001; Wooten et al., 1962; Wooten and Anderson, 1957; and Wooten, 1953.
Forest-Use Land

Forest land used for all purposes totaled 749 million acres in 2002 (table

8), an increase of 2 million acres over 1997 (see Appendix for detailed

descriptions of terms in bold). In the 48 contiguous States, the increase was

2.5 million acres, while Alaska lost 0.5 million acres from 1997 to 2002.

Forest land increased in the Appalachian, Southeast, Mountain, and Pacific

regions and either decreased slightly or remained constant in the other

regions of the country. 

More than two-thirds of the forest land in 2002 was timberland—forests

capable of commercial timber production not removed from timber use by

statute or administrative regulation—and the remainder was a combination

of reserved forest land and other forest land. Of the total, about 67

percent was non-Federal (Smith et al., 2004). Most of the forest area serves

multiple purposes. For example, livestock grazing occurs on about 134

million acres or 18 percent of the acreage (see “Grazed Forest Land,” p. 23)

and large areas are available for recreational use (see “Special Uses,” p. 31).

Forest land provides watershed protection, wildlife habitat, and parks, and

serves other special purposes. Excluding forest land grazed and an estimated 98 million acres of forest areas in special uses, such as parks and

wildlife areas, leaves 517 million acres of ungrazed forest-use land.

The “forest-use” category is based on the use of the forest land as opposed

to the forest cover alone. The forest-use designation includes both grazed

and ungrazed forests but excludes forest land in parks, wildlife areas, and

other special uses. This reduced area is a closer approximation of the land

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Table 8

Total forest land, by major class and region, 2002

Reserved

Timberland and other Total forest land

Region Federal Non-Federal Total 1 forest land 2 Federal Non-Federal Total 1

1,000 acres

Northeast 1,588 64,883 66,471 6,455 2,236 70,688 72,924

Lake States 6,131 42,909 49,040 2,885 7,533 44,392 51,924

Corn Belt 2,510 28,794 31,304 1,425 2,857 28,872 32,729

Northern Plains 1,097 3,244 4,341 444 1,323 3,461 4,784

Appalachian 5,960 66279 72,239 2,324 7,842 66,722 74,564

Southeast 4,731 68,930 73,661 2,510 6,167 70,004 76,171

Delta States 5,078 45,588 50,667 496 5,424 45,739 51,163

Southern Plains 1,111 16,896 18,007 6,806 1,293 26,521 24,814

Mountain 46,332 19,955 66,287 73,275 98,783 40,777 139,560

Pacific 30,428 28,532 58,960 32,714 49,533 42,141 91,674

48 States 1 104,966 386,009 490,975 129,335 182,989 437,316 620,305

Alaska 4,750 7,115 11,865 115,004 63,423 63,446 126,869

Hawaii 0 700 700 1,049 12 1,736 1,748

United States 1 109,717 393,823 503,540 245,388 246,425 502,497 748,922

1 Distributions may not add due to rounding.

2 Includes 98 million acres of forest land in parks, wildlife areas, and other special land uses.

Source: Smith et al., 2004.
that may be expected to serve commercial forest uses as opposed to having

forest cover. While forest-use land generally declined from 1949 to 2002,

forest-use land increased by almost 10 million acres (about 2 percent) from

1997 to 2002. 

Land area in forests is about equally divided between the eastern half of the

country and the western half, including the Plains States and Alaska (Smith

et al., 2004). Forest predominates in the Northeast, Appalachian, Southeast,

and Delta States regions, comprising 56-65 percent of all land in these

regions. Forest land is also a relatively large share of the Lake States and

Pacific regions, accounting for 43-45 percent of all land in these regions.

Acreages in the Mountain region and Alaska are quite large but make up a

smaller proportion of total land area in those regions (25 and 35 percent,

respectively). 

About 46 percent of the reserved and other forest land—parks, wilderness,

and wildlife refuges, for example—is in the Southern Plains, Mountain, and

Pacific regions, where it accounts for over 44 percent of all the forest land

in those regions. Much of the remainder (47 percent) is in Alaska, where it

accounts for 91 percent of all forest land in that State. In contrast, acreages

of reserved and other forest land in the Eastern States are relatively small,

accounting for no more than 10 percent of all forest land in any region east

of the Mississippi River (Smith et al., 2004).

Trends in Forest-Use Acreage

Forest-use land, which does not include the forest area counted under

special uses, increased by 10 million acres (roughly 2 percent) from 1997 to

2002. This marked a reversal of a downward trend since 1949. The 651

million acres of forest-use land differs from the 749 million total forest

acres estimated by the Forest Service because the latter includes multipleuse areas in special uses such as parks and wildlife refuges. Much of the 14-

percent decline in forest-use land from 1949 to 2002 entailed

reclassification of land from forest-use to special-use areas (see “Special

Uses,” p. 31). Total forest land decreased less than 1 percent between 1953

and 2002 (Smith et al., 2004).

Total forest land, including multiple-use areas, declined from colonial times

until about 1920, increased from 1920 to 1960, then trended downward until

1987 (USDA/FS, 1982; 1989). Total forest area has increased since 1987,

rising by about 5 million acres between 1987 and 1992, by 10 million acres

between 1992 and 1997, and by 2 million acres between 1997 and 2002.

Forest land classed as timberland has followed a similar upward trend since

1987, when it was at a 35-year low of 485 million acres. Timberland area

increased by 5 million acres over 1987-92, increased by 14 million acres

over 1992-97, and stabilized over 1997-2002 at about 504 million acres

(Smith et al., 2004).

Recent increases in timberland area are partially the result of a reclassification of some national forest lands due to standardization with protocols in

use on other land ownerships. Some of the increases in total timberland

since 1987 may also indicate a response to rising real prices for forest prod26

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Economic Research Service/USDA
ucts. Based on a national analysis of National Resources Inventory data,

Lubowski et al. (2003) estimate that the increase in net returns from timber

production, combined with a decline in crop profits, were the major determinant of forest area change from 1982 to 1997. While timberland acreage

increased nationally, changes were not uniform across the country. Some

timber-producing States, such as California, Washington, and Michigan,

experienced small decreases in timberland acreage from 1997 to 2002 (of 1,

0.4, and 0.3 percent, respectively). 

Although grazed forest land constituted 14 percent of the total U.S. land

area in 1949 (and 42 percent of the forest-use land), this share had dropped

to less than 6 percent of the total land area (and 21 percent of the forest-use

land) by 2002. Most of the forested land that had been grazed likely

remained forested. However, forest-use land that was not grazed increased

by just 77 million acres from 1949 to 2002, for an overall decline in forestuse land of 109 million acres (14 percent) during this period. 

Forests under non-Federal ownership declined by 0.7 million acres (less

than 0.5 percent) from 1997 to 2002. Acreage classified under all nonindustrial private ownerships remained at 291 million acres, while woodlands on

farms declined by about 1 million acres (1 percent) from 1997 to 2002

(USDA/NASS, 1999a; 2004a). Federal timberland increased by about 0.6

million acres (1 percent) from 1997 to 2002, compared with a 13-millionacre increase from 1992 to 1997. Earlier declines in Federal timberland area

from 1952 to 1992 were primarily the result of transferring timberland into

reserved areas. 

27

Major Uses of Land in the United States, 2002/EIB-14

Economic Research Service/USDA
Urban and Rural Residential Uses

The Census Bureau reported an urban area total of 56 million acres in

1990 and, based on a revised definition, 59.2 million acres in 2000 and 59.6

million acres in 2002 (see Appendix for detailed descriptions of terms in

bold). This estimate of urban land area for 2002 is below the 66 million

urban acres previously reported by Major Land Uses (MLU) for 1997 (table

2). This difference does not indicate an actual decline in urban acreage.

Instead, it reflects a change in the definition of urban and rural areas used

for the 2000 Census. The Census Bureau calculates that 1990 urban area

would have been 51.8 million acres under the new definition, compared

with 55.9 million acres under the previous definition. Estimates based on

the new definition imply that urban area increased about 7.8 million acres

(13 percent) from 1990 to 2000. 

Most significantly, the Census Bureau created a new set of geographic entities termed “urban clusters,” in order to more precisely delimit areas of high

population density outside major “urbanized areas.” These urban clusters

replaced the previous criteria, which classified whole Census-designated

places as urban based on average population density. The new geographic

units included high-population-density areas previously defined as rural and

excluded low-density areas previously defined as urban. Other changes in

the criteria include the removal of a grandfathering requirement to retain

areas as urban if they fell within previously designated urbanized areas. On

net, these and other changes in the Census criteria led to the downward revision of urban area estimates.12

In 2002, urban land in the United States was less than 3 percent of total land

area, but housed 79 percent of the U.S. population. Rural residential area is

an estimate of the acres of land and associated lots in rural areas used for

housing. Data on rural residential acreage at the national level are available

from several periodic American Housing Surveys (AHS) published by the

U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) and the

Census Bureau. AHS data are not available by State. In deriving the MLU

estimates, housing units for which AHS assigns an acreage weight but no lot

size (apartment houses, condominiums) were assigned the smallest lot size

in the sample to account for all housing area. Area associated with farm

housing units was subtracted to account for land in productive farms (with

more than $1,000 in annual agricultural income). 

The MLU estimate for the nonfarm, rural residential area is 94 million acres

in 2002, up from the 1997 estimate of 73 million acres and the 1980 estimate of 56 million acres. Urban land plus rural residential areas together

comprise 154 million acres, or almost 7 percent of total U.S. land area.

Given the information provided by AHS, it is not possible to clearly distinguish land used for residential purposes from land in other uses. Land in the

rural residential category could be classified under the “miscellaneous

other” land category in the MLU series (see “Major Uses of Land, by Class

of Ownership,” p. 35). However, land classed under rural housing lots could

also be classed as forests or grassland pasture and range, particularly given

the prevalence of large lots that could serve multiple uses (fig. 7). 

28

Major Uses of Land in the United States, 2002/EIB-14

Economic Research Service/USDA

12 The new Census definition of urban

area, and updates, can be found in the

Federal Register (DOC/BOC, 2002).
Large lot sizes occur more frequently in rural areas than in urban areas (fig.

7). Rural residential area encompassed 57.1 million acres of lots 10 acres

and more, versus 13.5 million acres in urban areas. However, in the smaller

lot sizes, urban land occurred in greater frequency. Urban land occupied

711,000 acres of lots less than an eighth of an acre, while rural land encompassed only 189,000 such acres. These small-size lot numbers do not reflect

residential units, such as apartments, which are not assigned lot sizes by the

AHS. Land in rural areas is generally less expensive, which may account for

larger lot sizes in rural areas.

The National Resources Inventory (NRI) is an alternative source for estimates of urban and rural residential areas. The NRI uses a consistent definition for urban and built-up areas, although it differs from the definition

used by the Census Bureau. According to the NRI, developed land totaled

106 million acres in 2001, including 22 million acres in rural transportation

uses and 84.3 million acres in small and large urban and built-up areas. The

MLU estimates for 2002 are 60 million urban acres, with 27 million acres in

transportation areas (highways/roads, railroads, and airports) and 94 million

acres in rural residential uses. 

NRI’s estimate of built-up areas exceeds the Census urban area estimate, as

NRI’s classification includes some rural housing tracts (typically over 10

acres) and some developed land used for nonhousing purposes in rural areas

(not included in MLU’s rural residential category). On net, NRI’s built-up

classification excludes more land than it includes relative to the sum of the

Census urban plus rural residential categories.

29

Major Uses of Land in the United States, 2002/EIB-14

Economic Research Service/USDA

Notes: Estimates are an average of 2001 and 2003 American Housing Survey micro-data, 

weighted according to 2000 Census geography. Farm housing units and housing units with 

unreported lot sizes (e.g., apartments) are not included in these estimates.

Sources: HUD/BOC, 2002; 2004. 

Figure 7

U.S. urban and rural residential area, by lot size, 2002

Million acres

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

Less than

1/8

1/8 to 

less than

1/4

1/4 to 

less than

1/2

1/2 to

less than

1

1 to 

less than

5

5 to 

less than

10

10 or more

Urban

Lot size, in acres

Rural
Trends in Urban and Rural 

Residential Uses

Urban land area has quadrupled from roughly 15 million acres in 1945 to an

estimated 60 million acres in 2002. The Census Bureau reports that the U.S.

population nearly doubled over this same period. Thus, urban land area has

increased at about twice the rate of population growth. Rural residential

land, as estimated by MLU, increased by 17 million acres (30 percent) from

1980 to 1997, and by 21 million acres (29 percent) from 1997 to 2002.

However, even with large percentage increases in urban and rural residential

areas, percentage decreases in the remaining rural area are small given the

available land base. 

Although the definition changes may have improved the precision of the

Census’ urban area estimates, the estimated 7.8-million-acre (13 percent)

change in urban area during the 1990s cannot be directly compared with

changes in previous periods. Based on the previous definitions, the Census

estimates that urban area increased 8.6 million acres (18 percent) over the

1980s, 12.8 million acres (37 percent) over the 1970s, and 9.1 million acres

(36 percent) over the 1960s.

The NRI’s use of a consistent definition across survey years makes it useful

for calculating the rate of urbanization or development of land. Between

1982 and 2001, the average rate of increase in large and small built-up areas

was 1.7 million acres per year. Between 1997 and 2001, the average rate of

increase was 2.1 million acres per year. According to the NRI, built-up land

increased by 13 million acres (26 percent) over 1982-92 and by 19 million

acres (33 percent) over 1992-2001. 

The average annual rate of increase in rural residential land has been 1.7

million acres per year since 1980. Combining the total urban annual rate of

230,000 acres and the rural residential rate of 1.72 million acres, the average

rate of increase in these categories is about 2 million acres per year.

Evidence suggests that the yearly rate of increase of residential land use

may have been higher over shorter periods of time. For example, land used

for all single-family housing, urban and rural, increased by about 2.3

million acres per year from 1994 to 1997 (HUD, 2000).

30

Major Uses of Land in the United States, 2002/EIB-14

Economic Research Service/USDA
Special Uses

Land for all special uses—including rural highways, roads, railroads,

airport rights-of-way, parks, and related recreational areas—comprised 297

million acres in 2002, an 11-million-acre (3.8 percent) increase since 1997

(table 9; see Appendix for detailed descriptions of terms in bold). Rural

transportation land accounted for more than 27 million acres, about 9

percent of the total. National and State parks and related wilderness and

primitive areas totaled almost 141 million acres. An additional 102 million

acres were administered by Federal and State fish and wildlife agencies, and

nearly 17 million acres served defense and industrial purposes. Land in

farmsteads, farm roads, and farm lanes accounted for 11 million acres in

2002.

Of the 242 million acres used for parks, recreation, and wildlife purposes in

2002, 28 percent were in the Mountain and Pacific regions, combined, and

58 percent were in Alaska. Much of this land is federally owned. An additional 7.5 percent spans rural parks, recreation, and fish and wildlife refuges

31

Major Uses of Land in the United States, 2002/EIB-14

Economic Research Service/USDA

Table 9

Trends in special uses of land, 1959-2002

Special-use areas 1959 1964 1969 1974 1978 1982 1987 1992 1997 2002

Million acres

Nonagricultural

Intensive uses 1 25.0 26.0 26.0 26.3 26.7 26.8 25.7 25.2 25.4 27.3

Rural highways/roads 20.2 21.2 21.0 21.2 21.5 21.5 21.2 21.0 21.0 21.8

Railroads 3.4 3.3 3.2 3.1 3.0 3.0 2.3 2.0 1.9 3.1

Airports 1.4 1.5 1.8 2.0 2.2 2.3 2.2 2.2 2.5 2.4

Extensive uses 87.7 107.4 107.0 112.5 122.8 234.9 245.8 249.3 253.6 258.8

National/State parks 2 29.7 31.9 35.0 36.8 38.5 89.7 96.0 94.3 98.1 99.2

Wilderness areas 3 14.5 14.6 14.3 14.8 18.1 26.0 32.5 35.7 40.0 41.4

Wildlife areas 4 17.2 29.0 32.1 35.9 41.3 95.2 96.4 98.8 99.0 101.6

Defense/industrial 5 26.3 31.9 25.6 25.0 24.9 24.0 20.9 20.5 16.4 16.7

Agricultural

Farmsteads/farm roads 6 10.1 9.2 8.4 8.1 8.4 8.0 7.1 6.2 6.6 10.8

Total 7 122.8 142.6 141.4 146.9 157.9 269.7 278.6 280.8 285.5 296.8

1 To derive rural highway and road estimates for 2002, average right-of-way widths were applied to mileage reported by FHWA (2002). 2002 railroad area is from FRA (2004) and airport area is from DOT/BTS (2004), DOT/FAA, (2002), and GDT (2000).

2 For 2002, includes areas in national and State park systems plus about 2.5 million acres in New York classified as State forest preserves.

Estimates exclude large water bodies and parks in urban places. Sources: DOI/NPS, 2002; WI, 2002; and HUD/BOC, 2003.

3 Estimates for 2002 include national forest wilderness and primitive areas administered by the U.S. Forest Service and Bureau of Land

Management. Source: WI, 2002.

4 Areas administered by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (DOI/FWS 2001) and State wildlife agencies. Estimates exclude Federal areas under

the jurisdiction of other agencies or areas leased for wildlife purposes. State estimates for 2002 are from State Fish and Wildlife websites, when

available. Otherwise, they are mainly from a compilation by the Council on Environmental Quality updated through 2001.

5 Estimates for 2002 include areas administered by the U.S. Department of Defense (13 million acres) and U.S. Department of Energy (2 million

acres), plus other defense-related public land (1.7 million acres), as of FY 2000 from the U.S. General Services Administration (GSA). GSA has

subsequently restricted access to these data.

6 Estimated on the basis of State-by-State number of farms and acreage of unclassified land in farms. For 2002, a new method was used to

compute farmstead acreage. The average farmstead size in 1997 was derived from National Resources Inventory data (USDA/NRCS, 2000) and

then multiplied by the number of farms in 2002 (USDA/NASS 2004a).

7 Distributions may not add to totals due to rounding.

Sources: Estimates prior to 2002 are from Daugherty, 1991, 1995; Frey, 1973, 1979, 1982; Frey and Hexem, 1985; Frey et al., 1968; Vesterby

and Krupa, 2001; Wooten et al., 1962; Wooten and Anderson, 1957; and Wooten, 1953.
east of the Rocky Mountains, including areas in New York, Pennsylvania,

Michigan, Minnesota, North Carolina, Tennessee, Florida, and Texas—all

with a million or more acres. Alaska alone accounted for over three-fourths

of the Federal and State fish and wildlife areas in the United States. Many

areas, particularly the national parks and wilderness systems, were selected

because of specific or unique site characteristics. 

National defense areas are concentrated in the Western States and Alaska,

where large areas are federally owned, and in less agriculturally productive

areas of the East. Nearly 65 percent of the national defense lands are in the

Mountain and Pacific regions.

Trends in Special Uses

Land used for rural transportation, recreation, wildlife, defense, and other

special uses in the 48 contiguous States has more than doubled from 100

million acres in 1945 to 212 million acres in 2002. Over all 50 States,

special use areas have increased about 2.5 times over a 43-year period,

increasing from 142 million acres in 1959 to 356 million acres in 2002.13

This was largely due to a nearly fourfold increase in rural parks and fish and

wildlife areas. Of the 181-million-acre increase in parks and wildlife areas

from 1959 to 2002, 126 million acres (70 percent) occurred in Alaska. 

The 71-percent increase in special uses between 1978 (158 million acres)

and 1982 (270 million acres) came from establishing national parks, wilderness areas, and wildlife refuges in Alaska in what was once inventoried as

forest or other unclassified land use. Alaska now has about 48 percent of the

special-use acreage. Since 1978, acreage in special uses in Alaska has more

than quadrupled from 35 million to over 143 million acres. 

Special-use areas increased 11 million acres (almost 4 percent) over 1997-

2002, continuing a steady upward trend since the 1940s. This apparent

change, however, should be interpreted with caution, as it reflects in part an

upward adjustment due to new data and methods. The rise in special-use

areas from 1997 to 2002 may have been driven by a reclassification of

miscellaneous and other land, which declined by 7 million acres from 1997

to 2002 (see “Miscellaneous and Other Land Uses,” p. 34). 

About half of the estimated increase in special-use land over 1997-2002

resulted from a 5-million-acre (2 percent) increase in rural parks and

wildlife areas, plus a 0.3-million-acre (2 percent) increase in defense areas.

The remaining change was the result of a 4-million-acre (64 percent)

increase in farmsteads/farm roads and a 2-million-acre (7 percent) increase

in rural transportation areas. The dramatic change in farmsteads and farm

roads reflects, perhaps in large part, newer data used to compute farmstead

acreage rather than actual changes in land use. The average farmstead size

in 1997 was derived from National Resources Inventory data (USDA/NRCS,

2000), then multiplied by the number of farms in 2002 (USDA/NASS,

2004a). The 1997 NRI data replaced older estimates of farmstead acreage

used for previous reports. 

The change in estimated areas under roads, airports, and railroads also

reflects the use of improved data and coverage of uses previously omitted.

32

Major Uses of Land in the United States, 2002/EIB-14

Economic Research Service/USDA

13 Data on special-use areas in Alaska

and Hawaii only became available in

1959, when they represented about 12

percent of the Nation’s total area in

special uses. 
Estimated land in rural transportation uses increased by nearly 2 million

acres from 1997 to 2002. Slightly less than half of the increase in rural

transportation was due to increases in the estimated area of rural roads

based on 2002 mileage data from the Federal Highway Administration, with

the remainder due to an increase in the estimated acreage of rural railroads.

In past reports, railroads other than class 1 were excluded due to insufficient

data. For this report, the availability of data and use of Geographic Information Systems techniques made it possible to include other classes of rural

railroads.

National defense and industrial acres—including energy and research

areas—differ from other special uses mainly in that location is paramount

and higher values and intensive uses characterize much of the land. This

land category consisted of 16.7 million acres in 2002, an increase of

300,000 acres from 1997, but a decrease of nearly 4 million acres since

1992. The modest increase may be attributed to more complete reporting of

statistics. The decrease over the past 10 years is largely attributable to

consolidation and closing of military installations. 

33

Major Uses of Land in the United States, 2002/EIB-14

Economic Research Service/USDA
Miscellaneous Other Land Uses

The remaining 228 million acres (10 percent) of the Nation's land is miscellaneous other land (see Appendix for detailed descriptions of terms in

bold). These uses consist of rural residential area (see “Urban and Rural

Residential Uses,” p. 28), as well as marshes, open swamps, desert, tundra,

and other land not inventoried and generally of low value for agricultural

purposes. Acreage of this unclassified land is relatively large in arid portions

of the West and several Atlantic and Gulf coastal areas. With extensive areas

of tundra, Alaska has 131 million acres of miscellaneous other land, over 57

percent of the U.S. total. Land classed under miscellaneous and other uses

declined by 7 million acres (3 percent) from 1997 to 2002. This decline is

partially a result of new data on rural roads and railroads, which raised the

estimate of transportation uses by 2 million acres, and other increases in

special uses (see “Special Uses,” p. 31).

While some of the 94 million acres of rural residential land may be included

under miscellaneous other uses, total miscellaneous other land in the

contiguous United States equals just 97 million acres. According to the

National Resources Inventory (NRI), non-Federal “barren” land and marshlands totaled 32 million acres in the 48 contiguous States in 1997. Since

these lands are likely included under miscellaneous other uses in the Major

Land Uses (MLU) estimates, this suggests that at least 30 percent, and

possibly much more, of rural residential land overlaps with some of the

other land uses, perhaps forest-use land or grassland pasture and range. 

Some of the miscellaneous land may constitute wetland acreage, although

wetlands can occur on land in a variety of other MLU categories, including

cropland, grassland pasture and range, forest uses, special uses, and urban

land. “Wetland” is thus a designation related to land cover, as opposed to

land use. According to the NRI, non-Federal acreage of wetlands in the

contiguous 48 States, excluding deepwater habitats, totaled almost 111

million acres in 2002, about 6 percent of the total U.S. land area. Sixteen

million (14 percent) of these wetland acres were classed as “other rural

land,” a residual category similar to miscellaneous other land in MLU. Of

the remaining wetland acres inventoried by NRI in 2003, 66 million

occurred on forest land; 17 million were on cropland, pasture, or Conservation Reserve Program land; 8 million were rangeland; 2 million were developed land; and 3 million were classified as water areas (USDA/NRCS,

2005). 

The NRI estimates a 22,000-acre net loss in total wetland acreage from

1992 to 1997, followed by an overall net gain of almost 100,000 acres from

1997 to 2003 (USDA/NRCS, 2005). Using a different sampling technique

and including both Federal and non-Federal land, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife

Service (FWS) estimates total wetland acreage in the contiguous 48 States

at 106 million acres in 1997, and reports a total net loss of 644,000 acres

from 1987 to 1997. This net loss was 80 percent lower than the FWS-estimated decline from 1977 to 1987 (Dahl, 2000). 

34

Major Uses of Land in the United States, 2002/EIB-14

Economic Research Service/USDA
Major Uses of Land, by Class of Ownership 

Over 60 percent of the land in the United States is privately owned (table

10). The Federal Government is the next largest landowner with more than

28 percent, mostly in the West. State and local governments own nearly 9

percent and Indian trust land accounts for over 2 percent. These proportions

change only gradually over time, except in Alaska, where large areas of

Federal land have been transferred to State and native (private) ownership. 

Federal land, at 635 million acres in 2002, includes the original public

domain and land acquired by purchase and other means. Total federally

owned land decreased by about 12 million acres between 1997 and 2002.

About 37 percent of all Federal land is in Alaska, 41 percent in the Mountain region, and 14 percent in the Pacific region. The remaining 9 percent is

distributed among the other eight farm production regions and Hawaii, with

the largest portion—nearly 2 percent of all Federal land—in the Lake States. 

About 152 million acres of Federal grassland and a portion of Federal

forestland are used for grazing. Livestock can also graze some of the

special-use and miscellaneous land. Federal land also includes forest land

in special uses and miscellaneous other land, such as marshes, open

swamps, bare rock areas, desert, and other uses not inventoried (see

Appendix for detailed descriptions of terms in bold).

State and local governments have accumulated landholdings of various sizes

through grants from the Federal Government, tax reversions, purchases,

gifts, and escheats. These publicly administered areas are distributed

throughout the Nation more evenly than Federal land, but are still highly

concentrated in the Western States. State and local governments hold land

35

Major Uses of Land in the United States, 2002/EIB-14

Economic Research Service/USDA

Table 10

Ownership and use of land, by major categories, 2002

Special uses,

Grassland urban uses, and Total

pasture Forest miscellaneous land

Ownership Cropland and range land 1 land 2 area 4

Million acres

Federal -- 152 246 237 635

State and 3 40 70 82 195

other public

American Indian 3 2 36 11 7 56

Private 436 358 422 162 1,378

Total 4 442 587 749 487 2,264

-- = Less than 500,000 acres. 1 Includes reserved forest land in parks and other special uses. 2 Excludes an estimated 98 million acres in special uses that have forest cover and, therefore,

are included with forest land in this table. 3 Managed in trust by the Bureau of Indian Affairs for Amrican Indian and Alaskan Native tribes

and individuals. 4 Distributions may not add to totals due to rounding.

Sources: Federal, State, and local government and Indian land acreage are approximations

based on public records and reports (DOI; FS; GSA). Private land is the remainder of the land

in each use category. Land use data are from DOI/BLM, 2003; DOT/BTS, 2004; DOT/FAA,

2002; DOT/FHWA, 2002; DOT/FRA, 2004; DOI/FWS, 2001; GSA, 2001; GDT, 2000; HUD/BOC,

1992, 2002, 2003; USDA/FS 1989, 1998; USDA/NASS, 2004a, 2004b, 2005; DOI/NPS, 2002;

USDA/NRCS, 2000, 2004a; and WI, 2002.
for forests, parks, wildlife refuges, highways and roads, institutional uses,

and other specific purposes. Most Western States also own relatively large

acreages to earn income, provide financial support to schools, and meet

other objectives. About 40 million acres in this category are used for

grazing.

The Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) manages 56 million acres in trust for

American Indian and Alaskan Native tribes and individuals. Like Federal

and State land, most land managed by BIA is concentrated in the Western

States. About 36 million acres is grazing land, and a small acreage is used

for crop production.

Private land, except that under American Indian and Alaska Native ownership, totaled nearly 1.4 billion acres in 2002. Between 1997 and 2002,

private ownership increased in forest-use land by 2 million acres and in

special uses, urban, and miscellaneous by a total of 17 million acres.

Privately owned land includes 99 percent of the Nation's cropland, 61

percent of the grassland pasture and range, 56 percent of the forest-use

land, and 30 percent of the special-use, urban, and miscellaneous land. 

Land use is closely interlinked with land ownership, and these proportions

reflect historic land management priorities. During the 19th century, Federal

agencies actively encouraged westward settlement and economic development through the selective transfer of the more productive agricultural lands

from Federal ownership to private companies and individuals (Wiebe et al.,

1997). At the beginning of the 20th century, the emphasis of land-use policies has evolved to balance private economic interests with the provision of

recreation, wilderness and wildlife, and environmental and resource 

conservation.

36

Major Uses of Land in the United States, 2002/EIB-14

Economic Research Service/USDA
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Major Uses of Land in the United States, 2002/EIB-14

Economic Research Service/USDA
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Research Service. Washington, DC.

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Appendix: Definitions and Explanation of

the Data

Major land uses presented in this report are the latest from a series of landuse inventories, based on available land use data from a wide variety of

sources, conducted by the Economic Research Service and predecessor

agencies. The estimates were constructed from available data, rather than

used exactly as developed by source agencies. This process is necessary

because land-use data, regardless of origin or utility for specific purposes,

have limitations for comprehensive inventory purposes. 

Data are typically obtained from surveys differing greatly in scope,

methods, definitions, and other characteristics. Individual sources account

for only one or a few uses and for only a limited part of the total land area.

The available data contain conflicts and overlaps that must be reconciled.

Definitions and explanations of the various land-use categories are:

Cropland—Total cropland includes five components: cropland harvested,

crop failure, cultivated summer fallow, cropland used only for pasture, and

idle cropland. The estimate of total cropland in 2002 includes total cropland

as reported by the 2002 Census of Agriculture (USDA/NASS, 2004a) plus

an upward adjustment to conform to data on principal crops harvested in

each State as reported by the National Agricultural Statistics Service for

2002 (USDA/NASS, 2005). In 2002, the Census estimate of total principal

crops harvested was about 98 percent of the estimate for the same crops

from NASS.

Cropland used for crops—Three of the cropland acreage components—cropland harvested, crop failure, and cultivated summer fallow—are collectively termed cropland used for crops, or the land

input to crop production. Annual estimates of cropland harvested

are based on both Census data and the series on principal crops harvested as maintained by NASS. Annual estimates of crop failure are

based on differences in planted and harvested acreage of principal

crops from the NASS series. Annual estimates of cultivated summer

fallow historically have been based on fragmentary data from a variety of sources. Since the late 1970s, they have been based on data

from the Census of Agriculture and unpublished NASS data.

Cropland harvested—Includes row crops and closely sown

crops; hay and silage crops; tree fruits, small fruits, berries, and

tree nuts; vegetables and melons; and miscellaneous other minor

crops. In recent years, farmers have double-cropped about 4 percent of this acreage.

Crop failure—Consists mainly of the acreage on which crops

failed because of weather, insects, and diseases, but includes

some land not harvested due to lack of labor, low market prices,

or other factors. Crop failure is calculated using the difference

between cropland planted and cropland harvested. However, some

cropland planted is not intended to be harvested. Thus, the

acreage planted to cover and soil improvement crops not intended

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for harvest is excluded from crop failure and is considered idle.

In recent years, crops have failed on about 2-3 percent of the

acreage planted for harvest.

Cultivated summer fallow—Refers to cropland in subhumid

regions of the West cultivated for one or more seasons to control

weeds and accumulate moisture before small grains are planted.

This practice is optional in some areas, but it is a requirement for

crop production in the drier cropland areas of the West. Other

types of fallow, such as cropland planted to soil improvement

crops but not harvested and cropland left idle all year, are not

included in cultivated summer fallow but are included as idle

cropland.

Cropland pasture—Generally is considered to be in long-term

crop rotation. However, some cropland pasture is marginal for

crop uses and may remain in pasture indefinitely. This category

also includes land that is used for pasture before crops reach

maturity and some land used for pasture that could have been

cropped without additional improvement. Cropland pasture and

permanent grassland pasture have not always been clearly distinguished in agricultural surveys.

Idle cropland—Includes land in cover and soil-improvement

crops and cropland on which no crops were planted. Some cropland is idle each year for various physical and economic reasons.

Acreage diverted from crops to soil-conserving uses (if not eligible for and used as cropland pasture) under Federal farm programs is included in this component. Cropland enrolled in the

Federal Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) and Wetland

Reserve Program (WRP) is included in idle cropland.

Grassland pasture and range—Grassland pasture and range comprise all

open land used primarily for pasture and grazing, including shrub and

brushland types of pasture, grazing land with sagebrush and scattered

mesquite, and all tame and native grasses, legumes, and other forage used

for pasture or grazing. Because of the diversity in vegetative composition,

grassland pasture and range are not always clearly distinguishable from

other types of pasture and range. At one extreme, permanent grassland may

merge with cropland pasture, or grassland may often be found in transitional

areas with forested grazing land. The estimates in this report are composites

of data from the Census of Agriculture, Bureau of Land Management,

Forest Service, and several other Federal agencies. The 587 million acres

classed as grassland pasture and range in 2002 included 395 million acres in

farms (USDA/NASS, 2004a). Also included are estimates of private grazing

land not in farms and public, nonforested grazing land. 

Forest land—As defined by the Forest Service, the 749 million acres of

forest land in 2002 consists of “land at least 10 percent stocked by trees of

any size, including land that formerly had such tree cover and that will be

naturally or artificially regenerated. Forest land includes transition zones,

such as areas between heavily forested and nonforested lands that are at

least 10 percent stocked with forest trees and forest areas adjacent to urban

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and built up lands. Also included are pinyon-juniper and chaparral areas in

the West and afforested areas” (Smith et al., 2004). There are a number of

components to total forest land, which are described below.

Timberland—Forest land that is producing or is capable of producing crops (in excess of 20 cubic feet per acre per year) of

industrial wood and not withdrawn from timber utilization by

statute or administrative regulation. Currently inaccessible and

inoperable areas are included (Smith et al., 2004).

Reserved forest land—Forest land withdrawn from timber utilization through statute, administrative regulation, or designation

without regard to productive status (Smith et al., 2004).

Wilderness areas and parks are included in this category. The definition changed slightly in 1997. Prior to 1997, the reserved forest

land definition depended on the timberland designation. Reserved

timberland was classed as “productive reserved” forest while nontimberland reserved forests were classed as “unproductive

reserved” and included under the “other forest” land category (see

below).

Other forest land—Forest land other than timberland and

reserved forest land. This includes available and reserved unproductive forest land, which is incapable of producing 20 cubic feet

per acre per year of industrial wood under natural conditions

because of adverse site conditions such as sterile soils, dry climate, poor drainage, high elevation, steep slopes, or rockiness.

Urban forest land is also included (Smith et al., 2004). This definition changed slightly starting in 1997. “For 1997, Other Forest

no longer includes land classified as unproductive reserved. This

area, amounting to about 12 million acres in 1997, in now included in the Reserved Forest category” (Smith et al., 2001).

Forest-use land—A Major Land Uses category based on the use of

the forest land as opposed to the forest cover alone. The forest-use

category includes both grazed and ungrazed forests but excludes an

estimate of forest land in parks, wildlife areas, and similar specialpurpose uses from the Forest Service’s inventory of total forest land.

While it is impossible to eliminate overlap with other uses, this

reduced area is a closer approximation of the land that may be

expected to serve commercial forest uses as opposed to having forest cover. Nevertheless, forest-use land may still be economically

unsuited for timber harvests. In addition, private landowners may

have objectives other than timber harvest. For example, Birch

(1996) found that only 29 percent of private forest owners reported

managing their land primarily for timber production.

Forest land grazed—Forested grazing land consists mainly of

forest, brush-grown pasture, arid woodlands, and other areas

within forested areas that have grass or other forage growth. The

total acreage of forested grazing land includes woodland pasture

in farms plus estimates of forested grazing land not in farms. For

many States, the estimates include significant areas grazed only

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lightly or sporadically. The Census of Agriculture, the National

Resources Inventory, and the Forest Inventory and Analysis are

the principal sources of data (USDA/NASS, 2004a;

USDA/NRCS, 2000; Smith et al., 2004). Historical data from

these and other sources were used in developing the 134-millionacre approximation.

Forest-use land not grazed—Forest-use land not used for grazing. 

Forest land in special uses—Forest land in special uses such as in

parks, wildlife areas, and similar special-purpose uses, estimated at

98 million acres for 2002.

Special-use areas—Special uses include areas in highway, road, and railroad rights-of-way and airports; Federal and State parks, wilderness areas,

and wildlife refuges; and national defense and industrial areas. The sources

and procedures used in developing these estimates are outlined in the footnotes to table 9. 

Miscellaneous other land—Includes miscellaneous other uses such as

industrial and commercial sites in rural areas; cemeteries; golf courses;

mining areas; quarry sites; marshes; swamps; sand dunes; bare rocks;

deserts; tundra; rural residential; and other unclassified land. In this report,

urban land is reported as a separate category. In the ERS “Major Land

Uses” data product, urban area is included as part of the special uses category. 

Urban area—Nationally, there are two sources of data on urban area. First,

the Census Bureau compiles urban area every 10 years, coincident with the

Census of Population. Second, the Natural Resources Conservation Service

publishes developed land—including urban components—in 5-year intervals

prior to 1997 and 1-year intervals subsequently, as part of the National

Resources Inventory (NRI).

Census Bureau—Census urban areas include densely-populated

areas with at least 50,000 people (“urbanized areas”) and denselypopulated areas with 2,500 to 50,000 people (“urban clusters”).

Densely-populated areas include census blocks with a population

density of at least 1,000 people per square mile, surrounding blocks

with a density of at least 500 people per square mile, and “less

densely settled blocks that form enclaves or indentations, or are

used to disconnect discontinuous areas with qualifying densities”

(DOC/BOC, 2002). In the 2000 Census, urban clusters (UCs)

replaced previous designations that were based on the boundaries of

Census-designated places. Included in the Census urban area definition are residential areas and concentrations of nonresidential urban

area such as commercial, industrial, and institutional land; office

areas; urban streets and roads; major airports; urban parks and

recreational areas; and other land within urban defined areas. The

definition allows for exceptions and special cases. Portions of

extended cities that are essentially rural in character are excluded.

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Major Uses of Land in the United States, 2002/EIB-14

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National Resources Inventory—Developed land in the National

Resources Inventory consists of urban and built-up areas and land

devoted to rural transportation (USDA/NRCS, 2000).

Urban and built-up areas—Consist of residential, industrial,

commercial, and institutional land; construction and public

administrative sites; railroad yards, cemeteries, airports, golf

courses, sanitary landfills, sewage plants, water control structures,

small parks, and transportation facilities within urban areas.

Large urban and built-up areas—Include developed tracts

of 10 acres or more.

Small built-up areas—Include developed tracts of 0.25 to 10

acres, which do not meet the definition of urban area but are

completely surrounded by urban and built-up land.

Rural transportation land—Includes highways, roads, railroads,

and rights-of-way outside of urban and built-up areas.

Residential area—Residential area is the sum of acres in lots used for

housing units. This series was introduced in 1997 to the Major Land Uses

report. Due to the limits of available data, it is not possible to distinguish

rural housing lots from land classified under other uses. Much of this land

may be included with “miscellaneous other” land, but some overlap could

also exist with forest use, grassland pasture and range, and other categories.

Data for this series are from the American Housing Surveys (AHS)

(HUD/BOC, 1996, 1999a, 1999b, 2002, 2004). The AHS started the current

series in 1980 and collects sample-based data every 2 years.

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