Structural data from agricultural censuses. April 2025 update

FAOSTAT releases today new structural data from agricultural censuses under FAO's World Programme for the Census of Agriculture (WCA). The 2025 update of the FAOSTAT domain features an update for 15 countries for the WCA 2020 round (bringing the total number of countries with data for WCA 2020 to 66) and new data from earlier rounds for 135 countries and territories.

The FAOSTAT domain Structural data from agricultural censuses was launched in 2022 to disseminate data collected in national censuses of agriculture at the agricultural holding level. The domain presents structural data from agricultural censuses conducted in the 1990, 2000 and 2010 under FAO's World Programme for the Census of Agriculture (WCA) rounds, with some holding-level information dating from the 1930s. Typical structural data include the size and number of agricultural holdings, the holder’s gender, the type of land tenure, the legal status of holders, as well as information on land use, crop area and farm labour.

Main findings:

• The 2025 update of the FAOSTAT domain presenting structural data from agricultural censuses features data for 15 additional countries for the World Programme for the Census of Agriculture (WCA) 2020 round and new data from earlier rounds for 135 countries and territories.
• The new WCA 2020 data show that China continues to be the country with the largest number of holdings. Belarus is the country with the largest number of holdings per 1 000 people.
• Australia and the United States of America remain the top largest countries in terms of total holdings’ area in the WCA 2020 round. They are followed by Brazil and the Russian Federation.
• With the update, Chile is the country with the sixth largest average holdings’ area in the WCA 2020 round, behind Australia, South Africa, Iceland, Argentina and Uruguay.