Erweiterte Untersuchung der Eigentumsstrukturen von Landwirtschaftsfläche in Deutschland: Ergebnisse der deskriptiven Analyse

This Thünen Report analyses and describes the distribution of agricultural land ownership in Germany. The data is based on parcel and owner information as of 2023 from the real estate cadastre (ALKIS) of a widespread random sample of 387 municipalities, which together account for 4% of the agricultural land in each of the eleven participating federal states. Since owner information in ALKIS is often inconsistent, incomplete, or incorrect, algorithms were used to identify identical owners, and land ownership was aggregated accordingly. Owners were categorized by owner type, demographic characteristics, and regional allocation. In the subsequent aggregation level (Stage 2), individual owners' land ownership was further aggregated according to their economic connection. Agricultural family farms and companies were identified based on EU agricultural support data. Land own-ership concentration was also measured at this aggregation level. The results show: Territorial entities and other bodies own 11.4% of the agricultural land, private companies own 8.9%, and natural persons own 79.7%. The latter group has an average age of 62 years and is predominantly male (71.0% of the land). Additionally, 67.9% of the land owned by private owners belongs to persons or companies located in the same municipality. In Stage 2 aggregation, 45.2% of the land is owned by non-agricultural persons/families, 32.8% by family farms, and 8.1% by agricultural companies. The Gini coefficient is 0.78 on average, indicating high inequality in land ownership. However, the mean concentration rates CR1 (12.9%) and CR5 (32.1%) are relatively low. The largest landowners per federal state are mostly the state or certain municipalities, with some agricultural companies in the East German states.