Major Uses of Land in the United States, 2012

The United States has a total land area of about 2.3 billion acres. The Economic Research Service's Major Land Uses (MLU) series is the only inventory of all major uses of public and private land in all 50 States. Since 1945, these estimates have been published at roughly 5-year intervals, coinciding with the Census of Agriculture. Land uses and land-use changes have important economic and environmental implications for commodity production and trade, provision of ecosystem services, soil and water conservation, and other policy issues. Although land-use decisions are typically made by landowners at the level of individual land plots (or parcels), a consistent series of aggregate statistics over time is useful for benchmarking broader shifts and trends. This study presents findings from the most recent (2012) inventory of U.S. major land uses, drawing on data from USDA, the U.S. Census Bureau, public land management and conservation agencies, and other sources.