Food and Agriculture in the United States, Read Through Five World Indicators

Food and Agriculture at a Glance

This slideshow steps through five World Bank indicators on food and farming, one frame per indicator. Each frame shows the ranking of countries, the value and rank of the highlighted country, and how its figure has moved over recent years. All figures come from the World Bank's World Development Indicators.

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Prevalence of undernourishment	61	The US is recorded at 2.5%, against a world figure of 8.5% in 2023
Cereal yield	10	US cereal yield is 8,413.5 kg/ha, 10th of 181 countries
Agricultural land	74	Agricultural land covers 46.083% of the United States, 74th of 210 countries
Food production index	130	The US food production index reads 100.86, 130th of 195 countries
Employment in agriculture	18	Agriculture accounts for 1.5249% of US employment, 18th of 187 countries

Read each frame on its own terms: the units, the reference year and the number of countries covered are different in every frame, so values and ranks must not be carried from one frame to the next. A higher value ranks higher for cereal yield and land share, but a lower value ranks higher for undernourishment and agricultural employment.

Key points

Across this set of food-and-agriculture indicators, the United States sits in the high-output, low-labour part of the distribution rather than at any extreme. Its cereal yield is 8,413.5 kg per hectare, 10th of 181 countries and close to double the world figure of 4,243.5 kg/ha. Agricultural land covers 46.083% of the US land area, 74th of 210 countries, a little above the world figure of 36.8836%. At the same time only 1.5249% of employment is in agriculture, 18th of 187 countries, against a world figure of 25.7808% — roughly one-seventeenth of it.

Sources: World Bank, *Cereal yield (kg per hectare)*; *Agricultural land (% of land area)*; *Employment in agriculture (% of total employment) (modeled ILO estimate)* (World Bank WDI).

The latest value of the headline indicator

The first indicator in this edition is the prevalence of undernourishment: 8.5% for the world as a whole in 2023, covering 169 countries. The United States is recorded at 2.5%, which is the lowest value the series reports — twelve countries, including Algeria, Australia, Belgium, Brazil, Canada and Chile, are all listed at the same 2.5%. Because 2.5% is a floor, the ranking within that group carries no real information, and the US rank of 61 should be read as "at the floor", not as a gap behind the countries numbered 1 to 12. At the other end of the same table, Haiti is at 54.2%, Somalia 53.2% and North Korea 47.0%.

Source: World Bank, *Prevalence of undernourishment (% of population)* (World Bank WDI, 2023).

Who is at the top and who is at the bottom

On cereal yield the top of the table is held by small, irrigation-dependent producers: Oman 29,147.0 kg/ha, the United Arab Emirates 23,306.5, Qatar 18,274.6 and Kuwait 14,956.8. These are yields per harvested hectare on very small areas, so the list is not a ranking of agricultural size or output. Below them come New Zealand 9,101.9, Belgium 8,485.7 and the United States 8,413.5 in 10th place. The bottom is Cape Verde 40.3, Namibia 451.2, Somalia 503.5 and Niger 577.4 kg/ha.

For agricultural land as a share of territory the leaders are Côte d'Ivoire 86.4758%, Turkmenistan 84.2216%, Burundi 83.8866% and Uruguay 81.3541%, while the lowest shares are Suriname 0.445%, Greenland 0.5923% and Singapore 0.9192%. The United States, at 46.083%, is a mid-table country here, well above Norway 2.6958% but far below the leaders. Note that the direction of "top" differs by indicator: for cereal yield and land share a higher value ranks higher, whereas for undernourishment and agricultural employment a lower value ranks higher.

Sources: World Bank, *Cereal yield (kg per hectare)*; *Agricultural land (% of land area)* (World Bank WDI).

How it has changed over the past decade

US cereal yield rose from 7,300.9 kg/ha in 2013 to 8,413.5 kg/ha in 2024, an increase of 1,112.6 kg/ha, though the path was uneven: the series jumped to 8,614.2 in 2016 — the highest value in the window — then moved between 8,005.5 (2019) and 8,330.0 (2023) before the latest figure.

Agricultural land share has been almost flat and slightly downward: 46.2397% in 2012, a peak of 46.7064% in 2017, then a decline every year to 46.083% in 2022, unchanged in 2023 — a net change of about -0.16 points over twelve years.

The food production index moved from 91.37 in 2011 to 100.86 in 2022 (2014-2016 = 100), with the highest reading at 104.86 in 2016 and 104.57 in 2021; the 2022 value is 3.71 points below 2021.

Agricultural employment fell from 1.7692% in 2014 to 1.5249% in 2025, a decline of about 0.24 points, with the highest share in the window at 1.8965% in 2015.

The undernourishment series shows 2.5% for the United States in every year from 2012 to 2023, which reflects the floor of the series rather than a measured change.

Sources: World Bank, *Cereal yield*; *Agricultural land*; *Food production index (2014-2016 = 100)*; *Employment in agriculture*; *Prevalence of undernourishment* (World Bank WDI).

Compared with similar countries

Among the major economies listed here, the United States has the highest cereal yield at 8,413.5 kg/ha: the UK follows at 7,137.9 (a gap of 1,275.6), then Germany 7,007.3, South Korea 6,615.2, China 6,418.1, France 6,280.8 and Japan 6,245.1 — the US figure is about 1.35 times the Japanese one.

On land use the picture reverses. The US share of 46.083% (74th) is below the UK's 70.3073% (20th), China's 55.4326% and France's 52.5044%, and close to Germany's 47.4659%; South Korea 16.0656% and Japan 12.6368% are far lower.

On agricultural employment the US 1.5249% sits between the UK 0.8513% and Germany 1.071% on one side and France 2.3341%, Japan 2.8137%, South Korea 5.1038% and China 21.6769% on the other. Within the Americas, Canada appears at 1.1047% (12th) and, on undernourishment, at the same 2.5% floor as the United States, while Haiti is at 54.2%.

On the food production index the US reads 100.86 (130th of 195), close to the UK 101.24 and South Korea 101.21, slightly above Japan 100.27, and below China 111.75; Germany 92.71 and France 94.02 are lower.

Sources: World Bank, *Cereal yield*; *Agricultural land*; *Employment in agriculture*; *Food production index*; *Prevalence of undernourishment* (World Bank WDI).

How to read these numbers

Each indicator answers a narrow question, and the four series are not interchangeable. Cereal yield is weight harvested per hectare of harvested land; it says nothing about how much grain a country produces in total, and it is strongly affected by which cereals are grown and by how much of the crop is irrigated — which is why very small desert producers head the table. Agricultural land share combines arable land, permanent crops and permanent pasture as a percentage of total land area; it is not a measure of output or of self-sufficiency. The food production index is measured against each country's own 2014-2016 average set to 100, so a rank reflects growth since that base period, not the size of production, and the world value of 100.0 is a base, not an average outcome. Agricultural employment is a modelled ILO estimate rather than a direct count. Undernourishment is reported with 2.5% as a censored lower bound, so values at that level mean "below 2.5%" and cannot be ordered against one another.

Reference years also differ — 2022 for the food production index, 2023 for undernourishment and land share, 2024 for cereal yield, 2025 for employment — as do the numbers of countries covered (169 to 210). National statistical practices differ as well, so cross-country comparisons are indicative rather than exact, and these figures are updated once a year by the World Bank.

Sources: World Bank, *Prevalence of undernourishment*; *Cereal yield*; *Agricultural land*; *Food production index*; *Employment in agriculture* (World Bank WDI).

Prevalence of undernourishment on the map and in charts

The table shows a long tie at 2.5% across the top, from Algeria to Chile, and Haiti 54.2%, Somalia 53.2% and North Korea 47.0% at the bottom. The US sits inside the tied group at the floor, listed 61st of 169.

The US line is flat at 2.5% from 2012 to 2023, which reflects the floor of the series rather than a measured change. The spread across countries is wide: more than 50 points separate the floor from Haiti.

Compare countries

Cereal yield

The top is held by small irrigated producers — Oman 29,147.0, the UAE 23,306.5 and Qatar 18,274.6 kg/ha — while Cape Verde 40.3, Namibia 451.2 and Somalia 503.5 close the table. The US ranks 10th, just below Belgium 8,485.7.

The trend line rises from 7,300.9 kg/ha in 2013 to 8,413.5 in 2024, peaking at 8,614.2 in 2016 and dipping to 8,005.5 in 2019. The bars are heavily skewed: the leader is more than three times the US value.

Agricultural land

Côte d'Ivoire 86.4758%, Turkmenistan 84.2216% and Burundi 83.8866% lead, while Suriname 0.445%, Greenland 0.5923% and Singapore 0.9192% sit at the bottom. The US is mid-table, below the UK 70.3073% and China 55.4326%.

The US line is almost flat, easing from 46.2397% in 2012 to a peak of 46.7064% in 2017 and then down to 46.083% in 2022 and 2023. Country-to-country differences dwarf that movement, spanning under 1% to over 86%.

Food production index

Senegal 177.49, Saudi Arabia 172.66 and Oman 170.06 top the table, with Gambia 71.08, Cuba 71.39 and Hungary 74.66 at the bottom. The US at 100.86 sits near the middle, close to the UK 101.24 and South Korea 101.21.

The US series climbs from 91.37 in 2011 to 104.86 in 2016 and 104.57 in 2021, then reads 100.86 in 2022. Because every country is indexed to its own base, the bars compare growth, not volume.

Employment in agriculture

Singapore 0.0954%, Hong Kong 0.1824% and Macao 0.3738% have the smallest shares, while Burundi 85.3411%, Mozambique 73.0061% and Niger 72.9925% have the largest. The US sits near the low end, between Canada 1.1047% and France 2.3341%.

The US line declines from 1.8965% in 2015 to 1.5249% in 2025, a fall of about 0.37 points over that stretch. The bar chart spans nearly the whole possible range, from under 0.1% to over 85%.