Agricultural properties

Updated: 27 June 2024

Next update: 27 June 2025

Uninhabited properties with dwelling house
Uninhabited properties with dwelling house
2023
182 526
 
Agricultural and forestry properties
Agricultural and forestry properties1
2023
NumberPer cent
Total182 526100
Type of property
Property with agricultural area160 45688
Property with productive forest area130 87072
Property with dwelling house143 16178
Uninhabited property with dwelling house30 51617
Type of owner
Male120 89166
Female47 94126
Properties of persons deceased/legal person/unknown13 6948
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
    2023
    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 488 984346 999182 526143 16130 51639 365
    The municipalities number of inhabitants1
    -2 500 inhabitants160 55039 80627 74020 9016 4766 839
    2 500 - 4 999 inhabitants240 09847 83729 45822 8436 0706 615
    5 000 - 9 999 inhabitants500 97574 54141 73532 8757 4758 860
    10 000 - 24 999 inhabitants1 033 26999 62546 89237 7166 6129 176
    25 000 inhabitants or more3 554 09285 19036 70128 8263 8837 875
    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
    2023
    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 526164 69490.2143 161112 64521.3346 999
    County
    Viken (2020-2023)24 47821 79989.119 42617 34210.760 286
    Oslo14612182.9897812.4478
    Innlandet30 06527 29890.824 13220 17116.460 067
    Vestfold og Telemark (2020-2023)12 70811 51690.610 1968 57715.926 938
    Agder13 24411 66388.110 1827 57425.620 935
    Rogaland10 3139 33390.58 3177 01515.726 905
    Vestland23 63822 25494.119 69214 59925.944 116
    Møre og Romsdal13 40512 50093.211 0718 74721.025 736
    Trøndelag - Trööndelage20 80619 06591.616 81113 91517.246 517
    Nordland - Nordlánnda18 25215 90087.112 6717 65839.618 612
    Troms og Finnmark - Romsa ja Finnmárku (2020-2023)15 47113 24585.610 5746 96934.116 409
    Owner
    Male120 891111 99292.6100 08981 80818.3254 325
    Female47 94143 40190.537 67828 18625.282 450
    Properties of persons deceased/legal person/unknown13 6949 30167.95 3942 65150.910 224
    Own agricultural area
    0 - 4 decares22 07013 28960.26 5593 81941.89 683
    5 - 49 decares98 24590 47692.178 01955 36229.0143 916
    50 - 99 decares28 40227 58797.126 19522 72213.370 903
    100 - 199 decares21 40621 03998.320 39819 1356.269 889
    200 - 299 decares7 1217 05399.06 8716 6283.527 380
    300 - 499 decares4 0093 98499.43 8883 7802.818 231
    500 decares or more1 2731 26699.51 2311 1992.66 997
    Productive forest area
    0-24 decares51 65645 96889.039 49430 13323.785 608
    25-99 decares45 80239 20585.632 95324 81624.771 023
    100-249 decares34 30631 30791.327 56621 64621.565 976
    250-499 decares22 29920 93293.918 84815 32418.750 060
    500-999 decares15 61414 91395.513 50711 39515.639 217
    1 000-1 999 decares7 9857 67696.16 9295 98513.621 321
    2 000-4 999 decares3 6003 47296.43 0142 64012.410 074
    5 000-19 999 decares1 01698196.670760514.42 842
    20 000 decares or more24824096.814310129.4878
    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
    2023
    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 69417.5926 19220.8199 313435 67185 617205 591
    Counties
    Viken (2020-2023)21 79919.2138 24824.529 85271 3465 78631 264
    Oslo12125.62 19524.3318223991 555
    Innlandet27 29816.2182 30023.935 84695 59015 60435 260
    Vestfold og Telemark (2020-2023)11 51619.566 68523.914 28831 8733 24417 280
    Agder11 66320.751 98627.012 23722 9613 29613 492
    Rogaland9 33327.753 65410.813 07025 9753 19211 417
    Vestland22 25416.7134 83924.127 45564 39619 90123 087
    Møre og Romsdal12 50015.566 20626.214 42628 4109 25914 111
    Trøndelag - Trööndelage19 06520.9110 86614.723 95554 51010 75921 642
    Nordland - Nordlánnda15 90011.764 30910.415 09721 6597 88319 670
    Troms og Finnmark - Romsa ja Finnmárku (2020-2023)13 24510.354 90412.212 76918 7286 59416 813
    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.

The information under «About the statistics» was last updated 21 September 2023.

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 2025

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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