New / updated articles
Updated 08/07/2025
Agricultural land is the most common primary land use category in the EU; it accounted for 38.8% of the EU’s total area in 2022 (see Figure 1). A slightly smaller share (35.3%) was used primarily for forestry, while 16.1% of the EU’s total area was unused or abandoned; the LUCAS survey is based on field visits, with land use determined based on visible signs when surveyed. 
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The remaining land use categories had much lower shares
- 5.8% of the EU’s total area was used for services and residential purposes – for example, commerce, finance and business; community services; recreation, leisure and sports; residential; and nature reserves
- uses having a heavy environmental impact – such as mining and quarrying, energy production, industry, water and waste treatment, and construction – accounted for 3.8%
- the lowest shares were recorded for fishing and aquaculture (0.2% of the total area) and the residual category of other primary sector activities (0.0%). More ...
Updated 08/07/2025
In 2022, the total area of the EU was 4.13 million square kilometres (km²). Woodland covered by far the largest area – some 41.0% of the total (see Figure 1). Thereafter, cropland covered almost a quarter (22.5%) of the total area, followed by grassland with a 17.1% share. The remaining shares were considerably lower: shrubland covered 6.1% of the total, followed by artificial areas (4.4%) and bare land (4.2%), while the least common forms of cover were water areas (3.1%) and wetland (1.5%). More ...
Updated 08/07/2025
In 2024, when compared with 2023, the number of transacted dwellings decreased in 4 out of the 17 EU countries for which data are available (see Figure 2). The decreases were observed in Slovenia (-17.7%), France (-9.1%), Ireland (-2.8%) and Finland (-2.0%), while the largest increases were recorded in Luxembourg (47.1%), Hungary (34.7%) and the Netherlands (16.7%). More ...
Since the beginning of the time series in 2010, prices are on an increasing long-term trend. After 2020, prices started to increase significantly faster than in earlier periods. Between Q4 2020 and Q1 2025, the OOHPI increased by 29.4% for the EU and by 26.9% for the euro area. In Q1 2025, the prices, as measured by the OOHPI, were 50.4% higher for the EU and 46.3% higher for the euro area than in 2015. More ...