Scottish agriculture facts & figures

Scotland's chief statistician has published the annual Scottish Agriculture facts & figures booklet which provides an overview of key Scottish agriculture statistics in 2008 along with selected UK and EU comparisons.

Here are just a few of the findings:

The total value of agricultural output from Scotland was £2.3 billion, representing 11.7% of UK and 0.7% of EU25 agricultural output.

Agricultural output, measured in GVA (Gross Value Added) was 0.8% of total Scottish GVA (in 2007). This is a higher proportion than in England (0.4 per cent) and Wales (0.3%).

Northern Ireland's agriculture carries the highest proportion of total GVA at 1.2%.

Land designated as 'Less Favoured Area' makes up almost 85% of agricultural land in Scotland, which is the highest proportion across the four countries of the UK (Wales, Northern Ireland and England show the proportion of LFA land as 81%, 70% and 16% respectively).

Total livestock (cattle, sheep, pigs and poultry) contribution to Scottish agricultural output was 35.5% in 2008, which is proportionately higher than the UK (27.6%) and EU25 contributions (24.1%).

In Scotland, 38% of agricultural holdings were smaller than 5 hectares in size. This compares to 40% in the UK, and 70% in EU27.

In Scotland, for holdings larger than 5 hectares, the average size was 176.7 hectares. This is much greater than corresponding averages in the UK (89.5 hectares) and EU27 (48.8 hectares).