Regional Differences in Land Use in Hungary

Abstract In the last decades, the area of agricultural land has been declined permanently in Hungary. Despite the diminishing production area, Hungary is among the leaders in terms of the proportion of agricultural land to the total area in the European Union. There are several reasons of using the arable land. As other economic sectors have gained a greater role in the production of GDP and employment, they have taken a larger area from agriculture. Real estate and infrastructure developments were justified by raising the standard of living of the population. The soil, nature, landscape and water protection aspects were also involved. In Hungary, the arable land is the most important natural resource, so it is very important to protect it. In our study, we examine the changes of arable land and uncultivated area in Hungary based on secondary databases of the Hungarian Central Statistical Office and departments of the Ministry of Agriculture. In the course of the research we focused on regional disparities.