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

Key figures

What the numbers say

In 2021, Suriname's agricultural irrigated land (% of total agricultural land) fell 0.64 percentage points on 2020 (from 75% to 74.36%).

Across the 11 yearly changes before that (2010 to 2020), the average change was +0.44 percentage points and a typical year strayed about 1.65 percentage points from that (the standard deviation). This year's change was 0.7 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 3.44 percentage points in 2012 and the biggest yearly fall was 1.51 percentage points in 2011. The numbers show how large and when, not why; for the cause, look at what happened in that country in those years.

From 2012 to 2021 there is no clear straight-line trend: a straight line explains 25% of the movement over 10 observed years, so the value is moving around more than it is heading anywhere.

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

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 13 values

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

• Dominican Republic — 12.01% (2024)
• Ecuador — 21.95% (2024)
• El Salvador — 2.37% (2024)
• Mexico — 5.84% (2024)
• Panama — 2.3% (2024)
• Uruguay — 1.47% (2018)

More environment data for Suriname

• Rural population — 218,901 (2025)
• Rural population (% of total population) — 34.21% (2025)
• Urban population — 420,949 (2025)
• Urban population (% of total population) — 65.79% (2025)
• Aquaculture production (metric tons) — 50 (2024)
• Capture fisheries production (metric tons) — 32,147 (2024)
• Total fisheries production (metric tons) — 32,197 (2024)
• Rural population growth (annual %) — 0.78% (2025)
• Urban population growth (annual %) — 0.89% (2025)
• Fertilizer consumption (kilograms per hectare of arable land)

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Questions people ask

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

74.36% in 2021, according to the World Bank (World Development Indicators).

How has it changed since 2009?

It is up 4.15 percentage points from 70.21% in 2009. The highest value was 75.86% in 2015 and the lowest 69.55% in 2011.

Is the latest change in agricultural irrigated land (% of total agricultural land) unusual for Suriname?

In 2021, Suriname's agricultural irrigated land (% of total agricultural land) fell 0.64 percentage points on 2020 (from 75% to 74.36%). Across the 11 yearly changes before that (2010 to 2020), the average change was +0.44 percentage points and a typical year strayed about 1.65 percentage points from that (the standard deviation). This year's change was 0.7 standard deviations below that average, so it was an ordinary year: it sits within the range of normal year-to-year movement.

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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