Settlement area is increasing – new-facts.eu

Wiesbaden (dts news agency) – The settlement area in Germany increased by 13,323 hectares in 2023 compared to the previous year. That was an increase of 0.39 percent, the Federal Statistical Office (Destatis) announced on Thursday.

Bavaria recorded particularly strong absolute increases in settlement area compared to the previous year with 3,745 hectares (+0.68 percent), North Rhine-Westphalia with 1,602 hectares (+0.28 percent) and Rhineland-Palatinate with 1,543 hectares (+0.89 percent). The settlement area in Saxony-Anhalt was slightly higher than the previous year at 463 hectares (+0.29 percent), but this is mainly due to a change in the system.

The largest share of Germany’s total area is the vegetation area at 83.1 percent (29.7 million hectares).

These essentially consist of areas for agriculture at 50.3 percent (18.0 million hectares) and areas for forests at 29.9 percent (10.7 million hectares). In contrast, only 2.3 percent of the German area was covered with water (0.8 million hectares).

The vegetation area in Germany fell by 10,094 hectares (-0.03 percent) in 2023 compared to the previous year. The absolute decreases in vegetation area in 2023 compared to the previous year were particularly significant in Bavaria by -4,482 hectares (-0.07 percent), in North Rhine-Westphalia by -4,163 hectares (-0.16 percent) and in Rhineland-Palatinate by -4,039 hectares (-0.24 percent).

The effects of the change in the basis for area calculation in Saxony-Anhalt are particularly clear for the vegetation area. This had 8,227 hectares more in 2023 compared to the previous year (+0.47 percent).

The traffic area increased by 3,773 hectares in 2023 compared to the previous year (+0.21 percent). High absolute increases in traffic area occurred in Rhineland-Palatinate with 2,419 hectares (+1.95 percent) and North Rhine-Westphalia with 2,309 hectares (+0.96 percent). The traffic area has decreased significantly in Brandenburg, among others, with -1,959 hectares (-1.84 percent) and in Hesse with -589 hectares (-0.41 percent).

Saxony-Anhalt recorded a larger traffic area in 2023 as a result of the change in the calculation basis: compared to the previous year, this was 103 hectares (+0.13 percent) higher.

The total area of ​​Germany was 35.8 million hectares in 2023, according to the Federal Office. 14.6 percent of Germany’s total area (5.2 million hectares) was used for settlement and transport purposes. Of this, 9.5 percent (3.4 million hectares) was the settlement area (including mining operations, opencast mines, pits and quarries) and 5.1 percent (1.8 million hectares) was the traffic area.

Photo: Houses (archive), via dts news agency