Loss of cultivated land in Switzerland since 1912

Agricultural land takes up most of the surface area in Switzerland, at 36%. Another very large portion of the total area (31%) is covered in woodland. A quarter of the territory is made up of “unproductive areas” such as glaciers, crags etc.

Switzerland has been losing cultivated land for decades on a continuous basis. Around one square metre of agricultural area is lost every second. In the Swiss Plateau, the main reason for this is the high growth of settlements. In mountainous regions, by contrast, the decline in cultivation leads to increasing bush encroachment and deforestation.

According to the categorisation of land use statistics by the Federal Statistical Office, FSO, “agricultural areas” include meadows and arable land, pastures, orchards, vineyards, gardening and Alpine farming areas. Around 27% of these agricultural areas are now productive arable farms.

According to the most recent land use statistics survey, 14,571 km² was counted as agricultural land in Switzerland in 2018. This corresponds to around 35% of the country’s total area. Since 1985, 1097 km² has disappeared – a decline of 7.0% in 33 years.
In 1912, by contrast, agricultural areas accounted for 56% of the total area, which means that in the last 100 years about 21% of agricultural land has disappeared. The largest decline (around 10%) took place between the surveys in 1952 and 1972.
In the Swiss plateau, the expansion of settlement areas (buildings, streets) is primarily responsible for the decline. Around 89% of all new settlement areas are on former agricultural land. Another process is in motion in the mountainous regions: due to the diminishing intensity of cultivation, more and more bush and woodland is spreading across former mountainous agricultural areas.

Method

The land use statistics from 1912, 1923/24, 1952 and 1972 were collected at municipality level using various methods – sometimes on a planimetric basis from a map. Generally, these were divided into four categories: woodland, agriculture, vines as well as wasteland and infertile land – which also includes settlement areas. The four surveys of 1979/85, 1992/97, 2004/09 and 2013/18 are based on evaluation of aerial photographs by the hectare and have a lot more categories.

The data gathered from the 1912-2018 surveys was harmonised at a deep level given its diversity, i.e. the scale was standardised and the make-up of municipalities as at January 2019 was used for reference purposes. In addition, only the categories already found in the land use statistics from 1912 were taken into account and the later data was conflated accordingly where necessary. This enables a rough overview of the change in land utilisation in Switzerland over the last 100 years.