European Union - Land area (sq. km)

The value for Land area (sq. km) in European Union was 3,999,623 as of 2021. As the graph below shows, over the past 60 years this indicator reached a maximum value of 4,001,882 in 1961 and a minimum value of 3,993,599 in 2012.

Definition: Land area is a country's total area, excluding area under inland water bodies, national claims to continental shelf, and exclusive economic zones. In most cases the definition of inland water bodies includes major rivers and lakes.

Source: Food and Agriculture Organization, electronic files and web site.

See also:

Year Value
1961 4,001,882
1962 4,001,862
1963 4,001,872
1964 4,001,872
1965 4,001,862
1966 4,001,852
1967 4,001,842
1968 4,001,832
1969 4,001,832
1970 4,001,822
1971 4,001,812
1972 4,001,812
1973 4,001,812
1974 4,001,782
1975 4,001,662
1976 4,001,582
1977 4,001,562
1978 4,001,562
1979 4,001,532
1980 4,001,452
1981 4,001,432
1982 4,001,422
1983 4,001,382
1984 4,001,392
1985 4,001,392
1986 4,001,392
1987 4,001,402
1988 4,001,392
1989 4,000,402
1990 4,000,402
1991 4,000,512
1992 4,000,552
1993 4,000,532
1994 4,000,572
1995 4,000,542
1996 4,000,632
1997 4,000,542
1998 4,000,502
1999 4,000,472
2000 3,999,823
2001 3,999,293
2002 3,998,103
2003 3,998,563
2004 3,998,353
2005 3,998,063
2006 3,997,403
2007 3,997,351
2008 3,996,802
2009 3,997,716
2010 3,999,060
2011 3,998,916
2012 3,993,599
2013 3,994,976
2014 3,996,266
2015 3,995,658
2016 3,996,051
2017 3,996,029
2018 3,999,623
2019 3,999,623
2020 3,999,623
2021 3,999,623

Development Relevance: Land area is particularly important for understanding an economy's agricultural capacity and the environmental effects of human activity. Innovations in satellite mapping and computer databases have resulted in more precise measurements of land and water areas. Population, land area, income, and output are basic measures of the size of an economy. They also provide a broad indication of actual and potential resources. Land area is therefore used as one of the major indicator to normalize other indicators.

Limitations and Exceptions: The data are collected by the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations through annual questionnaires. The FAO tries to impose standard definitions and reporting methods, but complete consistency across countries and over time is not possible. The data collected from official national sources through the questionnaire are supplemented with information from official secondary data sources. The secondary sources cover official country data from websites of national ministries, national publications and related country data reported by various international organizations.

Statistical Concept and Methodology: Total land area does not include inland water bodies such as major rivers and lakes. Variations from year to year may be due to updated or revised data rather than to change in area.

Aggregation method: Sum

Periodicity: Annual

Classification

Topic: Environment Indicators

Sub-Topic: Land use