Netherlands: Agricultural irrigated land (% of total agricultural land)

Key figures

What the numbers say

In 2024, Netherlands' agricultural irrigated land (% of total agricultural land) rose 0.05 percentage points on 2023 (from 21.58% to 21.62%).

Across the 18 yearly changes before that (2006 to 2023), the average change was +0.93 percentage points and a typical year strayed about 1.38 percentage points from that (the standard deviation). This year's change was 0.6 standard deviations below that average, so it was an ordinary year: it sits within the range of normal year-to-year movement.

On record, the biggest yearly rise was 2.88 percentage points in 2006 and the biggest yearly fall was 1.2 percentage points in 2008. The numbers show how large and when, not why; for the cause, look at what happened in that country in those years.

From 2015 to 2024 the straight-line trend is upward, about 1.46 percentage points a year. A straight line explains 98% of the movement over 10 observed years.

Worked out from the yearly values above. How the checks work: standard deviation, z-scores and straight-line trends.

A straight-line projection, tested first

Extending that straight line gives about 27.76% for 2027. We show this only because the same method, fitted on earlier years, predicted 2022 to 2024 better than "no change" would have: its average miss was 0.58%, against 2.24% for assuming no change. Treat it as a continuation of the recent pattern, not a forecast of events: it cannot see a recession, a policy change or a revision to the data.

See how a linear trend forecast works and the guide on forecasting without fooling yourself.

How it compares

In 2024, Netherlands had the 11th highest value of the 55 economies reporting that year. Higher is not always better: for some indicators the lowest value is the one to aim for. See the full ranking.

Closest to Netherlands in the 2024 ranking

• Greece — 8th of 55: 23.45%
• Lao PDR — 9th of 55: 22.73%
• Ecuador — 10th of 55: 21.95%
• Cyprus — 12th of 55: 19.59%
• Qatar — 13th of 55: 17.57%
• Albania — 14th of 55: 16.96%

What this measures

Agricultural irrigated land refers to agricultural areas purposely provided with water, including land irrigated by controlled flooding.

Limitations: The data are collected by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) from official national sources through annual questionnaires and are supplemented with information from official secondary data sources. The secondary sources cover official country data from websites of national ministries, national publications and related country data reported by various international organizations.. The FAO tries to impose standard definitions and reporting methods, but complete consistency across countries and over time is not possible. Thus, data on agricultural land in different climates may not be comparable.

Regional and income-group figures are computed by the World Bank as a weighted average.

All 20 values

Agricultural irrigated land (% of total agricultural land) in nearby economies

• Albania — 16.96% (2024)
• Armenia — 9.33% (2024)
• Austria — 2.65% (2024)
• Azerbaijan — 30.71% (2024)
• Belarus — 0.32% (2024)
• Bulgaria — 0.68% (2024)
• Channel Islands — 3.66% (2016)
• Croatia — 1.7% (2024)
• Cyprus — 19.59% (2024)

More environment data for Netherlands

• Population in largest city — 1.19 million (2025)
• Population in the largest city (% of urban population) — 6.85% (2025)
• Population in urban agglomerations of more than 1 million — 2.22 million (2025)
• Population in urban agglomerations of more than 1 million (% of total population) — 12.25% (2025)
• Rural population — 734,613 (2025)
• Rural population (% of total population) — 4.06% (2025)
• Urban population — 17.35 million (2025)
• Urban population (% of total population) — 95.94% (2025)
• Aquaculture production (metric tons) — 33,376 (2024)

Reading data like this

• Where to find free public data, and how to check it before you trust it — 2 min read
• Data analysis examples: 6 worked from one dataset — 3 min read
• Real change or random noise? A plain guide to reading your numbers — 2 min read

Questions people ask

What is Netherlands's agricultural irrigated land (% of total agricultural land)?

21.62% in 2024, according to the World Bank (World Development Indicators).

How has it changed since 2005?

It is up 16.82 percentage points from 4.8% in 2005. The highest value was 21.62% in 2024 and the lowest 4.8% in 2005.

Source

World Bank, World Development Indicators, indicator AG.LND.IRIG.AG.ZS, licensed CC BY 4.0. Original source: FAO electronic files and web site, Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), uri: https://www.fao.org/faostat/en/#data/RL, publisher: Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) Figures are fetched from the World Bank API and refreshed monthly; see the series on data.worldbank.org. The full definition and method are in the World Bank's metadata glossary. Comparisons use the same World Bank release.

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