How much land has the UK built on?

Added: 2026-05-17

[00:00:00]Which one of these segments do you think represents all the land in the UK that has been built on? Each of these segments represents a different land use just clumped together so you can make out the different proportions. So for example, this segment up here represents all of the UK's beaches, but the outer heedes don't actually look like this.

[00:00:18]They would actually also fit all of our inland water and most of our potato farms. I can tell you that the amassed builtup area is not this massive segment in the middle. I mean, whatever's there has got to be pretty important, right?

[00:00:31]It's not this land on Shetland that represents our entire stock of fruit and veg, orchards, and golf courses. Wow, that's a lot of golf courses. Might need to revisit that one in a video. Northern Ireland would fit all of our pigs, poultry, and Christmas trees. And in fact, it's Wales, or at least this segment of Wales, that would fit all of the UK's builtup areas. So, what does that leave? Well, this bit in the southwest represents all of our peakland, meaning bogs and swamps. What?

[00:00:57]These bits represent our broadleaf woodlands and conifers. Down here fits all the land we use for growing cereals like grain and oats. But there's still so much land left. What's this all for?

[00:01:07]Well, dairy feed, dairy pastures, beef feed, and the overwhelmingly largest of all, beef and lamb pastures. Except this still doesn't represent all of the land that we use to feed the UK. This does.

[00:01:22]And surprise, surprise, beef and lamb is taking up tons of land abroad, too. Yet, animal products only make up about half of our protein and a third of our calories. We're using the major share of land to fill a minor part of our diets.

[00:01:37]It's not efficient, and it cannot be replicated on a global scale, so it isn't sustainable either. In fact, it's actively putting us at risk of food insecurity by degrading natural ecosystems. If we ate less meat and dairy in the UK, our food would be more secure and we would use far less land, which we could instead give back to nature, which would be great for the climate, our continued food security, and for our