Farm tenure

Data from April 2024

Planned article update: December 2028

Highlights

In 2023, almost as much rented farmland as own-farmed land in the EU.

Almost 30% of the EU’s utilised agricultural area found on very large tenant farms over 100 hectares with a further 19% on very large own-farmed holdings in 2023.

Between 2010 and 2023, an additional 1.2 million hectares were tenant farmed, contrasting starkly with a decline of 6.1 million hectares that were own-farmed.

This article provides information about farm tenure in the European Union (EU). It consists of an overview of data, complemented by all information on definitions,measurement methods and context needed to interpret them correctly.

There were 8.8 million agricultural holdings (hereafter named ‘farms’) in the EU in 2023 (ef_fsi_farms). On the vast majority of these farms, the land is either owned by the holder or rented (as tenant farms). Nevertheless, many farms include a mix of part-owned and part-rented land. As a result, the analysis in this article is limited to the tenure of the area used for farming, to avoid double counting the number of farms or the number of farm managers.

Almost as much rented farmland as own‑farmed land in the EU

The EU’s farmland is worked by farms under different types of tenure. In 2023, land owned and farmed by holders accounted for 47.4% of the EU’s utilised agricultural area, a slightly higher share than was farmed as rented land by tenant farmers (45.3%). Together, these two forms of tenure cover the vast majority of agricultural land in the EU, with common land (3.5%) and share farming and other tenure modes (3.8%) being much less common – see Figure 1.

The distribution of farmland by tenure among EU countries was mixed. In 10 EU countries, own-farmed land accounted for a majority of utilised agricultural area, with the highest shares in Poland (75.5%), Portugal and Slovenia (both 69%). In a further 10 EU countries, tenant-land (rented) accounted for a majority of utilised agricultural area, with the highest shares being in Bulgaria (76.7%), Slovakia (74.9%) and Malta (73.9%).

Forms of tenure other than own-land and rented land were notable in some EU countries. In Greece, common land accounted for 29.5% of utilised agricultural area, the highest share among EU countries. In the Netherlands, shared land or other tenure modes accounted for 13.8% of utilised agricultural area, slightly more than the shares in the Romania (12.4%) and Italy (10.9%).

Almost two-thirds of rented land on farms over 100 hectares in size

In 2023, slightly more than one half (53.0%) of the EU’s utilised agricultural area (UAA) was found on very large farms with at least 100 hectares; almost 30% was on very large tenant farms and 19.0% on very large own-farmed holdings, the rest being on common land and shared or other tenure models (see Figure 2).

Despite their considerable number, small farms (with fewer than 5 hectares of land) represented only a small share of the EU’s agricultural area: 4.8% of the total on owned farmland and 0.5% on rented farmland.

In 2023, about two-thirds (65.6%) of all rented land for agricultural production (UAA) was on very large farms of over 100 hectares. By comparison, only 40.1% of all own-farmed UAA was on very large farms.

Small growth in rented farmland

Although the amount of utilised agricultural area in the EU declined by an estimated 2.9 million hectares between 2010 and 2023 to 156.2 million hectares, the amount of land that was rented increased by an estimated 1.2 million hectares. This contrasted with a sharp decline of 6.1 million hectares in the amount of own-farmed land, although some of this may be due to a reclassification as common land.

In some EU countries, there were notable changes in farm tenure between 2010 and 2023 (see Figure 3). There was greater own-farmed utilised agricultural area in Slovakia (up 13 percentage points (pp), albeit from a relatively low level) and France (up 12 pp). By contrast, there was greater tenant-farmed utilised agricultural area in a number of other EU countries; the increase was between 10 to 15 percentage points in Estonia, Austria, Ireland, Romania, Italy, and Denmark.

Source data for tables and graphs

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Data sources

The table ef_fsi_tenure describes owner- and tenant-farmed agricultural areas. The data collections are organised in line with the EU legislation. For 2020 (the agricultural census), 2023 and 2026, they are organised in line with the Regulation (EU) 2018/1091 and have a new structure, consisting of a core data set and several modules. The data are as comparable and coherent as possible across European countries.

Indicator definition

Type of tenure refers to the ownership of the land parcels and depends on the situation on a reference day of the year of the survey.

It includes:

Farming on own land (OWN_UAA) - utilised agricultural area farmed by the agricultural holding and held by the holder as a property or farmed by the holder acting as a usufructuary or heritable long-term leaseholder or under some other equivalent type of tenure.

Farming on rented land (RENT_UAA) - utilised agricultural area rented by the agricultural holding in return for a fixed rent agreed in advance (in cash, kind or otherwise), and for which there is a (written or oral) tenancy agreement. The utilised agricultural area is allocated to only one agricultural holding. If the utilised agricultural area is rented out to more than one agricultural holding during the reference year, it is normally allocated to the agricultural holding with which it is associated on the survey reference day or which used it for the longest period during the reference year.

Farming on common land (CMNL_UAA) - utilised agricultural area used by the agricultural holding but not belonging directly to it, i.e. on which common rights apply.

Share farming or other tenure modes (SHROTH_UAA) - utilised agricultural area which is:
- shared, meaning farmed in partnership by the landlord and the share cropper under a written or oral share-farming contract. The output (either economic or physical) of the share cropped area is shared between the two parties on an agreed basis.
- under other modes of tenure not covered elsewhere under the previous items.

Context

Both family-owned and tenant-run farms are a cornerstone of the agricultural sector in the EU, reflecting circumstances under which a tenure mode is better suited to particular economic and social conditions.

When farmland tenure is secure, there is greater confidence in making investment decisions for economic growth. Insecurity and instability in farmland tenure can lead to conflict and exclusion, particularly of poorer farmers. An added dimension in the EU has been the transition to liberalised land markets through the process of accession to the EU and the slow pace of land restitution in some of the EU countries.

Access to financial capital, escalating land prices and the lack of access to land are some of the barriers to entry in farming. At a time when a majority (61.0% in 2023 and climbing) of farm managers are over the age of 55 years (ef_fsi_agesex), looking at supporting the move of younger people into farming is increasingly important for the EU’s food security and the longer-term sustainability of the sector. Only 10.7% of EU farm mangers were under 40 years old in 2023 (ef_fsi_agesex). Tenure security is also highlighted as an enabler of more local, inclusive and sustainable food chains^[1].

Footnotes

See Land tenure and sustainable agri-food systems (2021), ILC, FAO and GLTN. ↑

Explore further

Database

Agriculture (agr), see:

Farm structure (ef)

Farm structural indicators (ef_fsi)

Tenure of utilised agricultural area (ef_fsi_tenure)

Thematic section

Dedicated section agriculture

Publications

Key Figures on the European food chain — 2025 edition

A look at European farms – agricultural census results

Methodology