Arable land needed to produce a fixed quantity of crops in Italy

Italy: Arable land needed to produce a fixed quantity of crops was 0.5062 in 2017. ▼ Falling

Latest (2017)
0.5062
Change on year
up 5.4%
World rank
65th
of 163 countries
All-time high
1
in 1961
All-time low
0.4501
in 2009
Years of data
57
1961–2017

Arable land needed to produce a fixed quantity of crops in Italy, 1961–2017

00.20.40.60.81196119892017

Source: Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (2025); Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (2026) – with major processing by Our World in Data.

Analysis

In 2017, arable land needed to produce a fixed quantity of crops in Italy stood at 0.5062.

Compared with earlier readings it is up 5.4% on the previous year and up 5.5% over ten years.

Over the whole period, arable land needed to produce a fixed quantity of crops in Italy peaked at 1 in 1961 and was at its lowest, 0.4501, in 2009.

That places Italy 65th out of 163 countries with data for 2017, putting it in the middle of the range.

The long-run direction has been consistently falling across the 57 years of available data.

Averages by decade

DecadeAverage LowestHighest Years
1960s 0.8948 0.7984 1 9
1970s 0.647 0.5838 0.7974 10
1980s 0.5701 0.5115 0.6122 10
1990s 0.5515 0.5131 0.6474 10
2000s 0.5026 0.4501 0.5594 10
2010s 0.4876 0.4513 0.5154 8

Countries ranked near Italy

  1. 62 United Kingdom 0.5175 compare
  2. 63 Belize 0.5137 compare
  3. 64 Hungary 0.5067 compare
  4. 66 Cyprus 0.4981 compare
  5. 67 Bhutan 0.4965 compare
  6. 68 Brunei 0.4963 compare

See the full ranking of 163 places →

More reference data data for Italy

All data for Italy →

Frequently asked questions

What is arable land needed to produce a fixed quantity of crops in Italy?
Arable land needed to produce a fixed quantity of crops in Italy was 0.5062 in 2017, according to Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (2025); Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (2026) – with major processing by Our World in Data.
What is the highest arable land needed to produce a fixed quantity of crops recorded in Italy?
The highest recorded value was 1 in 1961.
What is the lowest arable land needed to produce a fixed quantity of crops recorded in Italy?
The lowest recorded value was 0.4501 in 2009.
How does Italy rank for arable land needed to produce a fixed quantity of crops?
Italy ranks 65th out of 163 countries with data for 2017.
Is arable land needed to produce a fixed quantity of crops rising or falling in Italy?
Over the last ten years it is up 5.5%. The long-run trend across the full record is falling.
Where does this Italy data come from?
The figures come from Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (2025); Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (2026) – with major processing by Our World in Data, published as part of Arable land needed to produce a fixed quantity of crops. Statizoid updates them automatically from the source API.

Download this data

CSV · JSON — 57 observations, free to reuse under CC BY 4.0 (Our World in Data).

About this data

Indicator
Arable land needed to produce a fixed quantity of crops
Source
Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (2025); Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (2026) – with major processing by Our World in Data
Licence
CC BY 4.0 (Our World in Data)
Coverage
163 places, 10,097 data points, 1961–2023
Last refreshed

Index of arable land needed to produce a fixed quantity of crops (where values in 1961 are equal to 1.0).