Much of the information here is excerpted or adapted from the USDA, Economic Research Service report, Major Uses of Land in the United States, 2017 (EIB-275) September, 2024.
- Data Sources
- Scope/Coverage of Data
- Methods and Definitions
- Strengths and Limitations
- Additional Resources
- Recommended Citation
Data Sources
The USDA, Economic Research Service's (ERS) Major Land Use (MLU) series is the longest running, most comprehensive accounting of all major uses of public and private land in the United States. The series was started in 1945. Data come from USDA, Forest Service, USDA, National Agricultural Statistics Service, USDA, Natural Resources Conservation Service, and USDA, Farm Service Agency, the U.S. Department of Commerce, Bureau of the Census, U.S. Department of the Interior, Bureau of Land Management, U.S. Geological Survey, and other sources. Data were compiled (by State) to estimate the uses of several broad classes and subclasses of land. Standardized procedures were used to develop the estimates and are outlined below.
Scope/Coverage of the Data
The MLU series provides national as well as State land-use estimates for all 50 U.S. States. Estimates of land in all uses are published at roughly 5-year intervals, coincident with the Census of Agriculture going back to 1945. Cropland used for crops is published at 5-year intervals by State.
Methods and Definitions
Definitions, sources of data, and estimation techniques have varied little over time in the Major Land Uses series. The following definitions and explanations of the data are for the most recent year, but generally apply to all previous years as well.
- Cropland
- Grassland pasture and range
- Forest-use land
- Special uses
- Urban areas
- Miscellaneous other land
Cropland—Total cropland is the sum of five components, including (1) cropland harvested (net of double cropping), (2) crop failure, (3) cultivated summer fallow, (4) cropland pasture, and (5) idle cropland. Sources for this data are U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), National Agricultural Statistics Service’s (NASS) Census of Agriculture and Crop Production annual summary. The Census of Agriculture is published every 5 years, with data typically available 2 years after the census is conducted. The Census of Agriculture provides a more detailed look at crop acreage harvested, particularly in terms of minor crops. The Crop Production Annual Summary is an annually released data product, which is used to update total cropland and its constituent parts annually. While this product contains information on fewer crops than the Census of Agriculture, the product is updated annually, and contains acreage planted in addition to acres harvested.
Cropland used for crops—The sum of three of the cropland components, including (1) cropland harvested (net of double cropping), (2) crop failure, and (3) cultivated summer fallow—represents the land used as an input for crop production.
Cropland harvested—Includes all row crops and closely sown crops; hay and silage crops; tree fruits, small fruits, berries, and tree nuts; vegetables and melons; and miscellaneous other minor crops. Also includes land used to produce Christmas trees. Cropland that was harvested more than once in a single year (i.e., double cropped) is only counted once. Represents the land area on which crops are grown.
Crop failure—The difference between the area planted, with the intention of harvesting and the area harvested. Thus, the acreage planted to cover crops and soil-improvement crops (not intended for harvest) is excluded from crop failure and is considered idle. Consists mainly of the acreage on which crops failed because of weather, insects, and diseases, and includes some land not harvested due to lack of labor, low market prices, or other factors.
Cultivated summer fallow—Cropland that is located in subhumid areas of the western region that is cultivated for one or more seasons to control weeds and accumulate moisture before small grains are planted. This practice is optional in some areas but is a requirement for crop production in the drier cropland areas in the West. Other types of fallow (such as cropland planted to soil-improvement crops but not harvested and cropland left idle all year) are not included in cultivated summer fallow but are included as idle cropland. Occasionally referred to in this report simply as summer fallow, fallow, or fallowed.
Cropland pasture—Grazed land on which no crops were harvested this year but is considered to be in long-term crop rotation and/or could have been cropped without additional improvement. Cropland pastured before or after crops were harvested is included as cropland harvested and not cropland pasture. While the MLU's definition of cropland pasture has not changed, methodological changes in the 2007 and 2012 USDA, Censuses of Agriculture have led to a large portion of what had previously been classified as cropland pasture being reclassified as permanent grassland pasture and range. See the updates/revisions section and appendix D of the report, Major Uses of Land in the United States, 2017 (EIB-275) for more details.
Idle cropland—Includes land in cover and soil-improvement crops, as well as cropland on which no crops were planted. Also includes land enrolled in USDA, Farm Service Agency’s Conservation Reserve Program (CRP), Wetlands Reserve Program (WRP), and Agricultural Conservation Easement Program Wetland Reserve Easements (ACEP-WRE), with CRP land used for emergency haying and grazing in that year excluded.
Grassland pasture and range—All open land that is used primarily for pasture and grazing (including shrub and brushland types of pasture, grazing land with sagebrush, and scattered mesquite) and all tame and native grasses, legumes, and other forage used for pasture or grazing. Consists of private grazing land (not including cropland or forestland) and Federal grazing lands leased to the public. Also includes lands that are managed by the U.S. Department of the Interior, Bureau of Land Management, and nonforested lands that are managed by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, U.S. Forest Service. The primary source for this land-use category is USDA, Natural Resources Conservation Service’s National Resources Inventory (NRI). As the NRI only contains non-Federal land, other sources of data are used to obtain Federal land used for this category. For Federal grassland pasture and range data, sources of data are used such as U.S. Department of the Interior, Bureau of Land Management and the USDA, Forest Service.
Forest-use land—Land that serves commercial forest uses, as opposed to land that has forest cover but is used for other purposes. Thus, this land does not include forestland in parks, wildlife areas, or other special uses—which are included in the special uses category. This land is the sum of grazed forest and ungrazed forest-use land. The primary source for these data is the USDA, Forest Service’s Forest Resources of the United States report.
Grazed forest-use land—Non-Federal forestland that has grass or other forage growth, plus forested land that is leased out for grazing by the USDA, U.S. Forest Service. Non-Federal forestland is sourced from USDA, Natural Resources Conservation Service’s National Resources Inventory.
Ungrazed forest-use land—Forest-use land that is not used for grazing. Calculated as the remaining forest-use land after account for grazed forest-use land.
Special uses—Includes land in rural transportation, rural parks and wildlife areas, national defense and industrial areas, and farmsteads.
Rural transportation—Area covered by rural highways, roads, railways, and airports (excluding military bases).
Rural parks and wildlife—Areas in national- and State-park systems; designated areas owned by the USDA, U.S. Forest Service, and the U.S. Department of the Interior, Bureau of Land Management; and areas administered by the U.S. Department of the Interior, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and State wildlife agencies.
National defense and industrial—Areas administered by the U.S. Department of Defense and the U.S. Department of Energy.
Farmsteads—Housing and roads on farms.
Urban areas—Urban areas in the MLU series follow the U.S. Department of Commerce, Bureau of the Census’s urban-area definition. The Census Bureau compiles a list of urban areas every 10 years, coincident with the Census Bureau’s Census of Population. Census urban areas include densely populated areas with at least 50,000 people (or urbanized areas) and densely populated areas with 2,500–50,000 people (or urban clusters). Densely populated areas include census blocks with a population density of at least 1,000 people per square mile, surrounding blocks with a density of at least 500 people per square mile, and "less densely settled blocks that form enclaves or indentations or are used to disconnect discontinuous areas with qualifying densities" (U.S. Department of Commerce, Bureau of the Census, 2010). In the 2000 Census, urban clusters replaced previous designations that were based on the boundaries of census-designated places. The 2000 Census’s urban-area definition includes residential areas and concentrations of nonresidential urban areas, such as commercial, industrial, and institutional land; office areas; urban streets and roads; major airports; urban parks and recreational areas; and other land within urban-defined areas. The definition allows for exceptions and special cases. Portions of extended cities that are essentially rural in character are excluded. For the MLU series, intercensus years are extrapolated based on the prior two censuses.
Miscellaneous other land—Includes miscellaneous other uses such as land in: cemeteries, golf courses, mining areas, quarry sites, marshes, swamps, sand dunes, bare rocks, deserts, tundra, and other unclassified land; as well as some—but not all—industrial, commercial, and residential sites in rural areas. Land in this category is equal to the remaining land in each State after all other land-use categories have been reconciled.
Strengths and Limitations
In addition to its breadth and scope, the MLU’s strength is that it accounts for each and every acre of U.S. land. This action is done in a mutually exclusive way such that each acre is classified as one of our major land-use categories. In order to make the sum of all categories equal the total land area for each State, a reconciliation process takes places where the numbers reported in our source data are occasionally adjusted to avoid double counting (i.e. land getting classified as two different land-use categories across different sources). This process means that our estimates for a specific land-use type may not always perfectly match other official estimates. In cases where individuals are interested in one specific land use, rather than the use of all land, we recommend using the underlying official source. The exception to this is the cropland used for crops variable, for which the ERS Major Land Use data product is, the only source.
While these estimates can be used to identify long-term trends in land uses at the State level, there are also challenges that can make year-to-year comparisons unreliable for a particular component of MLU categories across specific years. In general, more confidence should be put in the broader land-use trends over decades rather than specific 5-year fluctuations. The primary reason for this challenge is methodological changes made by the data collectors and/or providers. Notable examples of methodological changes include in the USDA, National Agricultural Statistics Service's (NASS) 2007 and 2012 Census of Agriculture method for collecting cropland pasture acreage data; changes in the U.S. Department of Commerce, Bureau of the Census’s definition of urban areas in 2000; and the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service’s changes in 2012 to the in situ height requirement (13.1 to 16.4 feet) for what constitutes a tree as described in the Resources Planning Act (RPA) Assessment.
Additional Resources
For more information on how the Major Land Uses estimates compare to other Federal land-use and land-cover datasets, see Land Use and Land Cover Estimates for the United States. For citations of the previous MLU reports, see Major Land Use Reports Since 1948. For more information on the annual update, see the Documentation for Annual Update.
Recommended Citation
U.S. Department of Agriculture, Economic Research Service. (2024). Major land uses data product.