Summary of report

Agricultural land use change in the Nordic region

Sofie Andersson, Project Coordinator, NKJ

Sofie Andersson briefly presented the report “Changes to agricultural land use in the Nordic countries – and future prospects for collaboration“. It was published in May 2025 by the Nordic Council of Ministers (Nordpub) and covers 60 years of Nordic agricultural land statistics.

It was highlighted that:

Agricultural land decreased by approximately 19% since 1961.
The decline has slowed in the last 20 years but continues.
Main drivers for the decline are transport infrastructure, residential housing, land abandonment (especially northern regions), forest establishment, green energy installations, and biodiversity protection requirements.
All Nordic countries share similar planning systems that put the main responsibility with the local authorities. But the countries differ in what type of national steering mechanisms they have to influence or regulate local planning.

The report is a result of a discussion on land use and the reduction of agricultural land that recently emerged among the Nordic countries. The aim of the report is to promote further dialogue and recommendations for future cooperation.