Major Uses of Land in the United States, 2002

by Ruben N. Lubowski, Marlow Vesterby, Shawn Bucholtz, Alba Baez, and Michael Roberts

This publication presents the results of the latest (2002) inventory of U.S. major land uses, drawing on data from the Census, public land management and conservation agencies, and other sources. The data are synthesized by State to calculate the use of several broad classes and subclasses of agricultural and nonagricultural land over time. The United States has a total land area of nearly 2.3 billion acres. Major uses in 2002 were forest-use land, 651 million acres (28.8 percent); grassland pasture and range land, 587 million acres (25.9 percent); cropland, 442 million acres (19.5 percent); special uses (primarily parks and wildlife areas), 297 million acres (13.1 percent); miscellaneous other uses, 228 million acres (10.1 percent); and urban land, 60 million acres (2.6 percent). National and regional trends in land use are discussed in comparison with earlier major land-use estimates.

Keywords: Land use, land-use change, agricultural land, nonagricultural land, cropland, forest-use land, forestland, pasture, rangeland, rural residential land, urban land

In this publication...

• Entire Report
• Report summary
• Abstract, Acknowledgments, Contents, Preface, and Summary
• How the Land Is Used
• Trends in Major Uses of Land
• Basic Regional Land-Use Patterns
• Cropland
• Grazing Land
• Forest-Use Land
• Urban and Rural Residential Uses
• Special Uses
• Miscellaneous Other Land Uses,
• Major Uses of Land, by Class of Ownership
• References
• Appendix: Definitions and Explanation of the Data