Major land use in the United States has continued to grow, and a report from the USDA Major Land Uses (MLU) series combines data from 16 reports to show estimates by region and state from 1945 to 2017. The data is collected for each state from the US Department of Commerce, the Bureau of the Census, the US Geological Survey, and various others to estimate the use of several broad classes and subclasses of agricultural and nonagricultural land over time. The US is divided into 11 regions: Alaska and Hawaii, Appalachia, the Corn Belt, the Delta States, the Lake States, the Northeast, Northern Plains, Pacific, Southeast, and Southern Plains. Alaska and Hawaii were added to the survey in 1949, were excluded the next time the survey was conducted, and were then included again when they achieved statehood in 1959, creating some odd patterns in the very beginning of the data. The US has a total land area of 2.26 billion acres and consists of 6 major types of land: pasture/range 659 million acres, forest 622 million acres, cropland 390 million acres, special use 318 million acres, miscellaneous 197 million acres, and urban 74 million acres. 

Land use in the US is both privately and publicly controlled, with 47% of land in the West controlled by the government (Bui and Sanger-Katz 2017). The government owns so much of the land because, as the US expanded across the continent, it did so by purchasing or taking the land that became new states. The government started transferring land to state governments and individuals over time, such as farmers and ranchers, through homesteading and land grants. This worked in the Midwest, but geography made this harder in the West. The land in the West was not as attractive to farmers due to the mountainous, arid, and difficult-to-reach tracts of land. Settlers claimed a few valleys where farming was feasible, and the only remaining land was good for grazing. Cattle farming grew in the early 1900s because of the land available for grazing, but eventually, due to the tragedy of the commons, a law was created to manage the grazing of these lands. After all of this, the land in the West was left in the hands of the government.

Even though urban areas make up just 3.6% of the total size of the 48 contiguous states, 4 out of 5 Americans live, work, and leisure time there. As of 2018, urbanites comprised over 82% of the U.S. population. It is estimated that 31 county economies located in and around major cities, such as Los Angeles or New York, made up 32% of the national GDP. Urban areas, small but mighty, are integral to the nation's continued growth, and by 2030, 60% of job growth could come from just 25 hubs (Ghosh 2020). As we have continued to learn, people cluster in cities, especially skilled and educated workers. People become more productive when they work around other skilled people, and skilled cities have been more successful than less educated places. Everything cities have to offer: work, recreation, amenities, entertainment, transportation, and education, all contribute to people agglomerating in these major cities and explain why so much of our national GDP comes from these cities and why so much job growth is estimated to come from these major hubs.

In New York, there are 20 million people, with 45% of its population, or about 9 million people, living within New York City (HRSA). However, the number of those who live in the city is declining annually at a rate of -1.99% (World Population Review). On a percentage basis, urban creep outpaces growth in all other land-use categories. In class, we discussed how urban sprawl has continued to grow, and cities can grow up by building taller buildings or they can grow out by occupying more land. We see this phenomenon happen a lot in major cities, such as NYC, where people are moving out of the cities and into suburbs for reasons like housing costs, taxes, recreation, etc. Central cities have high taxes relative to suburbs and people are moving to regions where the cost of living is more affordable relative to job opportunities. This leads to the phenomenon of the decentralization of metropolitan areas and cities expanding into areas that previously were rural or natural areas. 

New York is located in the Northeast region of the US and contains 47.19% forests, 19.24% cropland, 12.68% special use, 7.26% Miscellaneous, 7.24% grasslands, and 6.40% Urban (USDA). New York is similar to the rest of the northeast region as its largest portions of acreage are made up of forest 59.38%, followed by cropland 15.48%, and then special use. The northeast region leads in urban land usage at nearly 10%. Of the states in the Northeast, New York is on the lower end of the spectrum when it comes to urban land usage. Several of the other states in the Northeast, such as Massachusetts, New Jersey, the District of Columbia, Rhode Island, and a few others, are ahead of New York in the amount of urban land usage. While New York is the largest US city, it is an extremely dense city and does not take up very much land in the state. Forest acreage has increased largely between 1945 and 2000 in both the northeast and in New York, and only slightly declined more recently. In the entirety of the US, the largest land usage is forest, and then cropland. This is similar to New York’s land usage however, New York contains much more forest in proportion to cropland than the rest of the United States. The US has an immense amount of grassland 27.76%, whereas New York has very little grassland 7.24%. Regarding what the US produces, the major crops grown are wheat, corn, and soybeans, and they are grown primarily in the Midwestern states. The US is also the world's largest beef producer, after Brazil, and production takes up 40% of total livestock-related land use domestically, predominantly in the Midwest and Southwest regions. The Northeast region is known for producing dairy products, poultry, and a variety of fruits and vegetables. New York produces in alignment with the rest of the northeast region, leading in dairy products, maple syrup, and fruits (NYFB). 

Bui, Q., & Sanger-Katz, M. (2016, January 6). Why the government owns so much land in the West. The New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/2016/01/06/upshot/why-the-government-owns-so-much-land-in-the-west.html 

Farm Bureau New York. (2020). New York Agriculture. Farm Bureau New York. https://nyfb.org/about/about-ny-ag 

Ghosh, I. (2020, January 14). Mapped: The anatomy of land use in America. Visual Capitalist. https://www.visualcapitalist.com/america-land-use/ 

US Department of Health and Human Services. (2023). Overview of the State - New York - 2023. HRSA. https://mchb.tvisdata.hrsa.gov/Narratives/Overview/b3d5c297-d623-4524-9172-0686a2ef2ee1#:~:text=According%20to%20population%20estimates%20from,reside%20in%20New%20York%20City 

Winters-Michaud, C. P., Haro, A., Callahan, S., & Bigelow, D. (2024). Major uses of land in the United States, 2017 (Report No. EIB-275). U.S. Department of Agriculture, Economic Research Service. https://doi.org/10.32747/2024.8633522.ers

World Population Review. (2025). New York. New York. https://worldpopulationreview.com/us-cities/new-york/new-york