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Land use

Area covered by different land uses

Source: Defra

Land use type as a proportion of total land

Source: Defra

Area covered by national parks and areas of outstanding beauty, 2005

Source: Defra

• The area of land classified as grassland and rough grazing, and the area used for growing crops, decreased in every region except for the North West between 1990 and 2005. London was the only region not to see an increase in the amount of urban/suburban land between 1991 and 2001.
• The South West has most grassland (nearly 1.2 million hectares), the East of England has most land used for crops and bare fallow (over 1 million hectares), and the South East has most woodland (270 thousand hectares).
• The South East has more urban/suburban land than any other region (over 200 thousand hectares).
• The South East has 33 per cent and the South West has 29 per cent of their regions designated as Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB) (2005).
• The East Midlands has just three per cent of the region similarly designated.
• 20 per cent of the Yorkshire and the Humber and 18 per cent of the North West region are designated as National Park.
• The South West has 638 kilometres of coastline designated as Heritage Coast (not shown).

• Land use - national indicator
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