Agricultural properties, 2006

In 2006 there were 190,600 properties with agricultural or productive forest area in Norway. Of these properties, 177,800 have some kind of building located on the property. About 91 per cent of the built-on properties have dwelling houses.

In total, 1,030,000 buildings are registered on agricultural properties, of which 23 per cent are dwelling houses, 45 per cent are agricultural buildings and 32 per cent are other types of buildings. About 22 per cent of all the buildings have protection status according to cultural heritage.

One out of five agricultural properties uninhabited

About 34,100, or 21 per cent, of the agricultural properties with dwelling houses do not have people living there permanently. In the counties surrounding Oslo, about 10 per cent of the properties are uninhabited, while in the counties in the northern part of the country about 30 per cent of the properties are uninhabited. The variation within counties is large from municipality to municipality. Central agricultural municipalities around Mjøsa and at Jæren have a lower percentage of uninhabited properties compared to municipalities in the northern part of Norway.

Most uninhabited among properties without own agricultural activity

The total agricultural area, the number of properties and the size of properties have not changed much over time. However, the number of properties with own agricultural activity has dropped significantly during recent decades. Uninhabited properties are most frequent among properties without agricultural activity. On these properties, the area is either out of use or rented out to other farmers. About 28 per cent of these properties are uninhabited. Among properties with own agricultural activity, the corresponding figure is 4.5 per cent.

Background

The statistics are built on the linkage of agricultural properties from the administrative Farm Register, buildings from the Official Ground Property, Address and Building Register (GAB) and from the Central Population Register. Linking of the registers is not perfect and the quality of the results cannot be better than the quality of the individual register. Previously, similar statistics were published for 2000 . Overall, the data quality, as well as the methodology for merging various registers, was more advanced for 2006.

Tables:

• Table 1 Buildings on agricultural and forestry properties. 2006
• Table 2 Agricultural and forestry properties, buildings and inhabitation. 2006