Agricultural properties

Updated: 28 August 2023

Next update: 27 June 2024

Uninhabited properties with dwelling house
Uninhabited properties with dwelling house
2022
182 391
Agricultural and forestry properties
Agricultural and forestry properties1
2022
NumberPer cent
Total182 391100
Type of property
Property with agricultural area159 93088
Property with productive forest area130 55972
Property with dwelling house143 52579
Uninhabited property with dwelling house30 62617
Type of owner
Male121 94367
Female47 95726
Properties of persons deceased/legal person/unknown12 4917
1Including properties with at least 5 decares owned agricultural area and/or at least 25 decares productive forest area.
² The numbers for male, female and properties of persons deceased were corrected 4 November 2021.
Explanation of symbols

Selected tables and charts from this statistics

  • Agricultural and forestry properties, by the municipalities number of inhabitants and type of agricultural and forestry property
    Agricultural and forestry properties, by the municipalities number of inhabitants and type of agricultural and forestry property
    2022
    Persons in NorwayPersons living on agricultural and forestry propertiesAgricultural and forestry properties, totalAgricultural and forestry properties with dwellingUnhabited dwelling on agricultural and forestry properties with dwellingOther agricultural and forestry properties
    The whole country5 425 270350 483182 391143 52530 62638 866
    The municipalities number of inhabitants1
    -2 500 inhabitants157 33339 72127 38920 7216 4376 668
    2 500 - 4 999 inhabitants240 73748 89929 68823 1376 1436 551
    5 000 - 9 999 inhabitants496 03775 41041 75032 9607 4868 790
    10 000 - 24 999 inhabitants1 046 801101 32847 14737 9766 6579 171
    25 000 inhabitants or more3 484 36285 12536 41728 7313 9037 686
    1Based on the number of inhabitants 1 January the current year.
    Explanation of symbols
  • Agricultural and forestry properties, buildings and inhabitation
    Agricultural and forestry properties, buildings and inhabitation1
    2022
    Agrucultural and forestry properties, totalAgricultural and forestry properties with buildingsAgrucultural and forestry properties with buildings (per cent)Agricultural and forestry properties with dwelling houseAgricultural and forestry properties with inhabitedAgricultural and forestry properties with dwelling house not inhabited (per centPersons, total, inhabited on agricultural and forestry properties with dwelling
    The whole country182 391164 88490.4143 525112 89921.3350 483
    County
    Viken24 50821 84989.219 49217 35910.960 692
    Oslo14612182.988809.1468
    Innlandet30 07827 32390.824 17620 13616.760 739
    Vestfold og Telemark12 71911 56690.910 2268 55016.427 058
    Agder13 22511 69488.410 2067 60325.521 112
    Rogaland10 3229 35790.78 3587 04715.727 063
    Vestland23 56222 22194.319 69414 61225.844 519
    Møre og Romsdal13 37712 50193.511 0908 81520.526 071
    Trøndelag - Trööndelage20 91719 12991.516 86913 97917.146 955
    Nordland - Nordlánnda18 17715 89887.512 7177 70139.418 886
    Troms og Finnmark - Romsa ja Finnmárku15 36013 22586.110 6097 01733.916 920
    Owner
    Male121 943113 13192.8101 16582 42318.5258 322
    Female47 95743 50790.737 79628 18225.482 717
    Properties of persons deceased/legal person/unknown12 4918 24666.04 5642 29449.79 444
    Own agricultural area
    0 - 4 decares22 46113 75861.36 9323 90443.79 832
    5 - 49 decares97 50089 98492.377 81755 27429.0145 060
    50 - 99 decares28 55527 73697.126 31222 89513.072 034
    100 - 199 decares21 51721 15398.320 51719 2646.170 875
    200 - 299 decares7 1377 06799.06 8826 6403.527 651
    300 - 499 decares3 9753 95199.43 8623 7582.718 057
    500 decares or more1 2461 23599.11 2031 1643.26 974
    Productive forest area
    0-24 decares51 83246 20289.139 73430 24923.986 790
    25-99 decares45 67339 26086.033 08024 91024.771 951
    100-249 decares34 20131 29891.527 60021 68121.466 601
    250-499 decares22 33320 98093.918 91415 41718.550 517
    500-999 decares15 59714 87595.413 49411 39915.539 564
    1 000-1 999 decares7 9547 63696.06 8895 96213.521 349
    2 000-4 999 decares3 5573 43096.42 9822 60112.810 062
    5 000-19 999 decares1 00596996.469359014.92 818
    20 000 decares or more23923497.91399035.3831
    1Including properties with at least 5 decares owned agricultural area and/or at least 25 decares productive forest area.
    ² The numbers for male, female and properties of persons deceased were corrected 4 November 2021.
    Explanation of symbols
  • Buildings on agricultural and forestry properties
    Buildings on agricultural and forestry properties1
    2022
    Agricultural and forestry properties with buildingsAgricultural and forestry properties with contruction activity last ten years (pBuildings, totalBuildings with protection status (per cent)2 Dwelling houses, totalAgricultural and forestry buildingsMountain farm huts, cabins for forest workers, boat-houses etcOther buildings
    The whole country164 88417.9932 12321.0200 385439 16785 915206 656
    Counties
    Viken21 84919.4139 75024.630 05672 2665 80731 621
    Oslo12128.12 24424.13422221001 580
    Innlandet27 32316.5183 14924.036 02196 22915 55435 345
    Vestfold og Telemark11 56619.567 24824.014 36132 1453 27217 470
    Agder11 69421.152 44027.112 29923 1693 32813 644
    Rogaland9 35728.754 11510.913 22026 2363 22211 437
    Vestland22 22117.1135 44724.327 55364 76620 08723 041
    Møre og Romsdal12 50116.166 65726.214 48728 5979 28914 284
    Trøndelag - Trööndelage19 12921.4111 12714.824 04854 76710 72821 584
    Nordland - Nordlánnda15 89812.164 96210.415 17721 9777 93819 870
    Troms og Finnmark - Romsa ja Finnmárku13 22510.854 98412.312 82118 7936 59016 780
    1Including properties with at least 5 decares owned agricultural area and/or at least 25 decares productive forest area.
    2Comprises buildings built before 1900. In Finnmark are buildings built before 1945 included.
    Explanation of symbols

About the statistics

The statistics show the number of agricultural and forestry properties, land resources, the number and type of buildings, persons residing on the properties and ownership information.

Agricultural and forestry property

Property that is used for or could be used for agriculture and/or forestry. All agricultural/forestry area belonging to the same owner within a municipality is regarded as one property, irrespective of the number of cadastral units.

Type of building

Type of building is determined according to the function of the building. In this statistics dwelling houses include buildings with the following building codes in the cadastral system; 111 – 199, excluding code 161, 171, 172, 181, 182 and 183. Agricultural buildings include buildings with the following codes in cadastral system; 231 – 290 and mountain farm huts, cabins for forest workers and boat-houses etc. 171, 172 and 183. Other buildings include the remaining codes and buildings missing code.

Building activity last 10 years

Information is collected from the cadastral system. Building activity last 10 years refers to construction of new buildings or extension of existing buildings in the last ten years period.

Inhabitation

An agricultural property is inhabited when at least one person has the property as place of residence registered in the Central Population register.

Name: Agricultural properties
Topic: Agriculture, forestry, hunting and fishing

27 June 2024

Division for Housing, Property, Spatial and Agricultural Statistics

County and municipality.

Annually.

Not relevant

Collected and revised data are stored securely by Statistics Norway in compliance with applicable legislation on data processing.

Statistics Norway can grant access to the source data (de-identified or anonymised microdata) on which the statistics are based, for researchers and public authorities for the purposes of preparing statistical results and analyses. Access can be granted upon application and subject to conditions. Refer to the details about this at Access to data from Statistics Norway.

The statistics describes buildings, habitation and areas on agricultural properties. The statistics also give information about the owners of the properties and theirs business.

Users include public and private sector agencies, organizations and individuals.

No external users have access to statistics before they are released at 8 a.m. on ssb.no after at least three months’ advance notice in the release calendar. This is one of the most important principles in Statistics Norway for ensuring the equal treatment of users.

Forestry, structural statistics comprise forestry properties with at least 25 decares productive forest area while Agriculture, structural statistics comprise agricultural holdings.

The statistics are developed, produced and disseminated pursuant to Act no. 32 of 21 June 2019 relating to official statistics and Statistics Norway (the Statistics Act).

Not relevant

Including 2010, the statistics comprise properties in the Farm Register of the Norwegian Agricultural Authority with at least 5 decares owned agricultural area and/or at least 25 decares productive forest area. As from 2012 the statistics are based on new cartographic data analyses and data on owners and properties from the cadastre in combination with data from the Farm register. Figured for 2011 are not published.

Inforformation on property owners date back to 01.01 current year while information on inhabitants date back to 31.12 current year.

It may be difficult to decide whether a property is an agricultural property or not. As from 2022 we have taken in use a more consistant way to include properties found in cartographic data analysis which is not registered in the Farm register.

The Farm Register of the Norwegian Agricultural Authority serves as the backbone of the statistics. The information from the Farm Register is combined with information at property level from different data sources like the Cadastre System (no: Matrikkelen), the Central Population register, the Cultural Heritage Register (SEFRAK), SSB’s population of agricultural holdings.

All data are collected from administrative registers.

Data are checked by various machine controls.

Not relevant

Employees of Statistics Norway have a duty of confidentiality.

Statistics Norway does not publish figures if there is a risk of the respondent’s contribution being identified. This means that, as a general rule, figures are not published if fewer than three units form the basis of a cell in a table or if the contribution of one or two respondents constitutes a very large part of the cell total.

Statistics Norway can make exceptions to the general rule if deemed necessary to meet the requirements of the EEA agreement, if the respondent is a public authority, if the respondent has consented to this, or when the information disclosed is openly accessible to the public.

More information can be found on Statistics Norway’s website under Methods in official statistics, in the ‘Confidentiality’ section.

In 2006, the statistics were published for the first time. Corresponding statistic are worked out for 2000 . When comparing data from 2000 with data from 2006 and later, improved quality of the registers and different demarcation of the population may influence the statistics at municipality level.

In 2000, one of the indicators was "Inhabited on agricultural properties with building". From 2006 this was changed to" Inhabited on agricultural properties with dwelling house".

Introduction of property tax in some municipalities may cause changes in the classification of buildings by type of building. In special, holiday homes encoded as farmhose or detached house will influence on the share of properties with dwelling house.

A quality improvement of areas and units in the Farm Register is carried out at municipality level. For some municipalities this resulted in considerable changes from one year to another.

As from 2007 information about registered owner of agricultural properties comes from the Cadastral System (Matrikkelen). More than 30 000 agricultural properties have more than one owner. In that cases, the owner with the largest share is choosen. If the share is equal, the oldest owner is choosen.

Before 2007, information of owners comes from the Farm Register. In some cases a contact person or a management company are registered as the property owner in that register. It is not clear in what way the information about the owner are treated when only a part of the property is sold.

Buildings registered without the need for application, after the introduction of the data register Matrikkelen in 2008, have to varying degrees been registered with all necessary information. In 2008 and 2009, this in turn has led to an underestimation of buildings in the agricultural sector. In 2010, 5000-6000 buildings were registered without need of application.

As from 2012, the number of forest properties and productive forest area are based on new cartographic data analyses and data on owners and properties from the cadastre in combination with data from the Farm register.

Errors may arise when data are entered into the various administrative registers.

A concern is the quality of the Farm Register. The productive forest area of the properties is sometimes missing or erroneous. We also believe that some small properties without buildings and entrepreneurial activity may lack in the register.'

Even though the registers have good quality, some errors could occur due to late or missing updating and classification errors. For instance, an agricultural property may contain a cadastral unit recently transferred to non-agricultural use. For instance, nursing homes and rental housing may be counted together with an agricultural property.

In that cases the number of inhabited will be corrected on cadstral level. Cadastral units with buildings as nursing homes, retirement homes, block of flats etc, or with buildings with more than six residences, the number of inhabited are corrected. In total, 19 000 persons are taken away from the agricultural properties.

The main concern is the quality of productive forest area. In the cadastre, 920 000 decares productive forest area are not linked to a title number of a holding number, and will not be included in the statistics.

Not relevant

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