First, the charts:
Note: The earth’s surface is 71% ocean. The rest is land, of which 76% is habitable. Water bodies include rivers, lakes, etc.
km2 refers to square kilometers.
The information in these charts is from “Half of the world’s habitable land is used for agriculture” published online by Our World in Data (updated February 2024). Here is the concluding section of that article:
The long-run historical trend of expanding farmland does not have to continue. There are ways that we can cut agricultural land use — by a lot.
By shifting towards more plant-based diets, we would save large amounts of land through reductions in grazing land, and croplands for animal feed. By moving away from biofuels we would free up land that is currently used to grow cereals, vegetable oils, and other feedstocks.
And by improving the productivity of land use — whether using more efficient grazing lands or increasing crop yields — we can continue to produce more food, using less land.
This would be a huge win if we want to preserve the world’s biodiversity. Food production is the biggest driver of biodiversity loss across the world. This was true for most of our history and is still true today.
Reference:
Hannah Ritchie and Max Roser (2019) - “Half of the world’s habitable land is used for agriculture” Published online at OurWorldinData.org. Retrieved from: 'https://ourworldindata.org/global-land-for-agriculture' [Online Resource] Updated February 16, 2024.