Great Britain — Current theme: Agriculture & Land Use




Agriculture & Land Use

This aspect of the Vision of Britain system presents data from two kinds of source: Agricultural Censuses, which gathered data on the kinds of crops planted and animals raised, usually from farmers; and Land Use Mapping, which actually surveyed land use, field by field. Work on this theme has been funded by DEFRA, the Environment Agency and the Frederick Soddy Trust. Our most detailed information on land use is, in fact, the complete set of the maps published by the Land Utilisation Survey of Great Britain, included in our 'Historical Mapping' section.



Our detailed statistics are held in structures called nCubes, which you can think of as tables with one dimension, or with two ... or with twenty. Their dimensions are defined by the variables each nCube combines, and each variable is made up of categories. These nCubes are available at national level for this theme:

Available nCubes Period covered Variables
(number of categories)
Total areas of reporting units 1931 Total Area (for Farm Census) (1)
Land Utilisation in the 1930s (LUSGB data) 1931 Land Utilisation Survey of Great Britain categories (6)
Total area, in acres 1931 Land Utilisation Survey of Great Britain Total (1)
Farmland Use, as reported by the Land Utilisation Survey 1931 Land Utilisation Survey farmland categories (2)
Basic land use categories, as reported by the Agricultural Census 1931 Land Areas reported by the Agricultural Census (6)
Farmland Use, as reported by the Agricultural Census 1931 Agricultural Census Categories for Farmland (2)
Generalised Crop Acreages 1931 Generalised Crop Categories (6)
Acreages of different crops, as reported by the 1931 Scottish Agricultural Census 1931 Agricultural Census Crop Categories for 1931 (20)
Categories of Cattle as reported by the Agricultural Census. 1931 Agricultural Census Cattle Categories for 1920-31 (7)
Categories of horse as reported by the Agricultural Census. 1931 Agricultural Census Horse Categories for 1920-31 (5)
Generalised agricultural crop classification for 1866-1970. 1931 Agricultural Census Generalised Crop Categories (13)
Generalised Categories for Horses as reported by the Agricultural Census. 1931 Agricultural Census Generalised Horse Categories (2)
Generalised Cattle Categories as reported by the Agricultural Census. 1931 Agricultural Census Generalised Cattle Categories (3)
Generalised Sheep Categories as reported by the Agricultural Census. 1931 Agricultural Census Generalised Sheep Categories (3)
Types of Animal reported by the Agricultural Census 1931 Types of animal listed by the Agricultural Census (6)
Types of pig as reported by the Agricultural Census. 1931 Agricultural Census Pig Categories for 1920-30 (3)
Types of sheep as reported by the Agricultural Census. 1931 Agricultural Census Sheep Categories for 1920-30 (4)