That is an interesting question. And why it matters.
First
The first question is, who owns the land in the U.S.?
Second
How much land is there?
Third
How much is arable?
Who Is the Largest Land Owner in the U.S.?
The U.S. government is by far the largest land owner in the United States.
The Federal government owns about 640 million acres of land in the United States, which is about 28% of the total land area of about 2.3 billion acres.
149 million acres are in Alaska and much is not currently suitable for agricultural production. The total land area of the lower 48 states is approximately 1.9 billion acres.
The Federal government owns 61.3% of the land area in Alaska, 46.4% of the land area in the 11 contiguous Western states; and 4.2% of the land area of other states. Details of land owned by the Federal government in each state is available in the report “Federal Land Ownership: Overview and Data” by the Congressional Research Service.
Private ownership
A large amount of land in the U.S. is privately owned. However, the amount of land owned privately by the ten largest landowners is dwarfed by Federal ownership.
Using 2017 data, the ten largest private land owners in the U.S. are:
No. 1: John Malone owns 2,200,000 acres
No. 2: Ted Turner owns 2,000,000 acres
No. 3: Emmerson Family owns 1,959,666 acres
No. 4: Stan Kroenke owns 1,380,000 acres
No. 5: Reed Family owns 1,370,000 acres
No. 6: Irving Family owns 1,246,236 acres
No. 7: Brad Kelley owns 1,150,000 acres
No. 8: Singleton Family owns 1,100,000 acres
No. 9: King Ranch Heirs owns 911,215 acres
No. 10: Pingree Heirs owns 830,000 acres
Top 10 Total owned: 14,147,117 acres
Since there are 1.9 billion acres in the lower 48 states, we can say that for 2017, the the top 10 private landowners own about three-quarters of one percent of all the land in the U.S. (This assumes no land in Alaska.)
Usable?
In the U.S., about 16% of the land is arable. (This compares to about 12% for China, and 59% for Bangladesh, for examples.) However, the U.S. has the most amount of arable acreage of all countries in the world.
Facts
There are endless interesting facts about land use. Two are: most agriculture in the U.S. is used to grow crops for animals, not for humans. Most pharmaceuticals used in the U.S. are administered to animals, not humans.
So Why Does Land Ownership Matter?
Given impending global warming sea-level changes, large numbers of people will undoubtedly want to migrate to different geographies.
If people in low-lying areas need to move to higher ground, they will be moving to land owned by someone.
Where Are We To Go?
So owning some types of land will be worth more than others. Land that has some elevation but is arable, is not tropical, or becoming tropical, will be most desirable.
While statistics on land ownership is easily available, as is estimates on how much land is arable, I have been unable to find any data on how much Federally-owned land is arable. Do you know where to find this piece of data?
Of course, some large percentage of Federally-owned land is not habitable. Land used by the military, forests, deserts, hard scrabble lands all are difficult to live on. So not all of that land would be useful for new residents.
Privately-owned land may also come under pressure. Private ownership engenders making a profit.
When domestic migrations start to increase, there may be political pressure to open Federal lands for homesteading and residences. From the point of view of climate change, there is likely no political possibility for such a policy, but it might be something that happens in the coming decades.
On the other hand, from the point of view of those that seek to privatize Federal land, it may be possible to move forward politically.
What do you think will be some of the fallout when climate migrations meet land ownership? Do you know how much Federally-owned land is arable? Send your comments: Contact
The 19th century flute (Chippewa or Ojibwa), Canada, is located at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
The 1697 guitar, France, is attributed to Jean-Baptiste Voboam is located at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
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