environment
Cropland & farmland
Why this matters
Farmland is the working land that grows our food. This measure tracks how much of an area’s land is used for crops, pasture, and other farm production.
Farmland supports local food supply, farm jobs, and rural economies. It also shapes the look and character of a region. Once farmland is paved over for subdivisions, shopping centers, or roads, it almost never returns to growing food.
In fast-growing regions like Charlotte, sprawl is a leading cause of farmland loss. Watching this number over time shows whether a community is balancing new development with the open, working lands that feed people and filter rainwater.
About the Charlotte region
This explorer covers the 14-county, two-state Charlotte region (11 North Carolina and 3 South Carolina counties). Many of these indicators connect to a defining regional story: a landmark Harvard study ranked Charlotte last, 50th of the 50 largest U.S. metros for economic mobility (a child raised in the poorest fifth had about a 4.4% chance of reaching the top fifth), a finding that launched the region's Leading on Opportunity agenda. Updated 2024 data show Charlotte has since climbed to 38th.
Opportunity here is also unevenly mapped. An affluent “wedge” fanning southeast from uptown holds a large majority of the city's wealth on under a quarter of its land, while a ”crescent” to the north, west, and east carries higher poverty, a legacy of redlining, exclusionary zoning, and highway routing that recurs across the race, income, health, tree-canopy, and school maps in this tool. No single indicator is good or bad on its own; together they describe how the region sorted opportunity.
Companion resources: Charlotte-Mecklenburg Quality of Life Explorer · UNC Charlotte Urban Institute · Opportunity Atlas · Methods & sources
Learn more
- USDA — Census of Agriculture nass.usda.gov
The federal count of U.S. farms with land-use and acreage data down to the county.
- American Farmland Trust — Farms Under Threat farmlandinfo.org
Dashboard tracking farmland lost to development by state and county.
About the data
Derived from the USGS National Land Cover Database (2001–2021), a 30-metre satellite land-cover product. Tract values are area-weighted zonal statistics (exact pixel fractions) of the classified raster. As a wall-to-wall classification it carries no sampling margin of error.
Source: U.S. Geological Survey, National Land Cover Database (NLCD).