2022 Land Report: Who owns the most land in the United States? (2024)

FAQs

2022 Land Report: Who owns the most land in the United States? ›

Top ten largest private landowners:

Editor, The Land Report

The Emmersons became America's largest landowners in 2021 when they acquired 175,000 acres in Oregon from Seneca Timber Company. With that acquisition, the Emmersons surpassed Liberty Media chairman John Malone's 2,200,000 acres.

People own most farmland. Some 2.6 million owners are individuals or families, and they own more than two thirds of all farm acreage. Fewer than 32,500 non family held corpor ations own farmland, and they own less than 5 percent of all U.S. farmland. Farmland owners hold an aver age of about 280 acres each.

Who Owns the Most Land in the World? The largest landowner in the world currently is King Charles III of England. How much land does the Royal Family own? He and the British Royal Family own more than 6,600,000,000 acres of land around the world.

According to a 2021 report by the Department of Agriculture, China owns 384,000 acres of American agricultural land; ownership which jumped by 30% from 2019 to 2020.

The Catholic Church owns an estimated 177 million acres around the world, which makes them by far the largest landowners on Earth. In second place is Canada's Inuit people who own 87 million acres spread across Nunavut (Northwest Territory), Yukon and Northwest Territories in Canada as well as Alaska and Greenland.

Which countries own the most land in the U.S.? China holds only about 1% of all foreign-owned land in the United States, while Canada owns nearly a third. Canada holds 31% of all foreign owned land, with the Netherlands and Italy following with 12 and 7% respectively.

He responded, “I own less than 1/4000 of the farmland in the US. I have invested in these farms to make them more productive and create more jobs. There isn't some grand scheme involved - in fact, all these decisions are made by a professional investment team.”

In 2024, America's largest landowner is Red Emmerson. Red and his family own just over 2.4 million acres in California, Oregon, and Washington through their timber-products company, Sierra Pacific Industries.

Gates and his wife Melinda own a total of 268,984 acres of land, most of which includes the farmland, along with 25,750 acres of transitional land and 1,234 acres of recreational land. Part of that land is in Arkansas. The Gates family owns 47,927 acres in Arkansas, according to the Land Report.

Which government owns the most land? ›

Federal lands are owned or managed primarily by the Bureau of Land Management, the Forest Service, the Fish and Wildlife Service, the National Park Service and the Department of Defense. BLM is the largest landowner, with 248 million acres of public land and 700 million acres of subsurface mineral estates.

The Mormon church owns 2.3M+ acres of private land in the US. That's 1 in every ~550 acres. Known holdings make it #2 top landowner.

The Walt Disney Company owns 43 percent of the resort; the majority 57 percent is held by Shanghai Shendi Group, a joint venture of three companies owned by the Shanghai government.

Yes, China does allow foreigners to buy property. But there are a few requirements you'll need to meet as a US citizen venturing into the Chinese property market. These are the country-wide rules, but there may also be other requirements depending on which region you're looking to buy in.

Almost 40% of Chinese buyers have purchased in California. However they are also strong players in college towns, as they still prefer the American education for their kids, or in places like New York City, Florida and Texas.

The Nebraska land is just one slice of the 1.7 million acres of American real estate the Mormon church is now estimated to own. That 1.7 million-acre total is likely an undercount, said Truth and Transparency co-founder Ryan McKnight, because it only includes corporations definitively traced back to the church.

In summary, while the British royal family owns significant land in the United Kingdom, they do not own any land in the United States.

Who Owns the Land? Of all private U.S. agricultural land, Whites account for 96 percent of the owners, 97 percent of the value, and 98 percent of the acres.

Ted Turner

CNN founder Ted Turner owns 2 million acres of land largely in New Mexico, South Dakota, Nebraska, and Georgia. Much of Turner's land is used as grazing land for over 50,000 head of buffalo – the largest private bison herd in the world.