Why does the World Bank say that Saudi Arabia’s Agricultural land (% of land area) is 80%

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[Link](https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/AG.LND.AGRI.ZS?locations=SA&most_recent_value_desc=true)

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2 Answers

Anonymous 0 Comments

Agriculture is defined as the cultivation of crops and the *rearing of animals* for various products. Land doesn’t need to have crops growing on it to be classified as “agricultural” since there isn’t much land that couldn’t in theory have goats or something on it.

Also just because an area of land is zoned as agricultural doesn’t mean it is actually being used that way. If you have a mostly barren desert then what else are you going to zone that land as? Industrial? Residential? Agricultural makes as much sense as anything.

Anonymous 0 Comments

That statistic is derived from self reported figures from national governments. There is no uniform definition as to what that statistic is actually measuring and if you click on the details button it will give you a gigantic warning about how that statistic doesn’t necessarily mean much – especially when comparing between countries with dramatically different climates.