(30 November 2015) – Between 2003 and 2013, slightly more than 4 million holdings disappeared in the EU, while the total area used for agriculture remained almost stable. Almost a third of holding managers aged 65 or over.
Of the 10.8 million farms in the EU, almost 3.5 million (31.1%) were managed by persons aged 65 or over and a further 2.6 million (24.7%) by managers aged between 55 and 64, while those younger than 35 accounted for 6.0% of all farm managers.
Regarding agricultural land, France (15.9% of EU total) and Spain (13.4%) were the two Member States with the largest utilised agricultural area in 2013, followed by the United Kingdom (9.9%), Germany (9.6%), Poland (8.3%), Romania (7.5%) and Italy (6.9%).
The largest decrease of utilised agricultural area between 2003 and 2013 was registered in Cyprus (-30.1%), followed by Austria (-16.3%) and Slovakia (-11.0%), while the highest increase was recorded in Bulgaria (+60.1%), followed by Latvia (+26.1%), Greece (+22.4%) and Estonia (+20.3%).
In 2013, the highest average utilised agricultural areas per holding were registered in the Czech Republic (with 133.0 hectares), the United Kingdom (93.6 ha), Slovakia (80.7 ha), Denmark (67.5 ha), Luxembourg (63.0 ha), France (58.7 ha) and Germany (58.6 ha).
In contrast, average areas below 10 hectares per holding were recorded in Malta (1.2 ha), Cyprus (3.1 ha), Romania (3.6 ha), Slovenia (6.7 ha), Greece (6.8 ha) and Hungary (9.5 ha).