Recent figures from the National Institute of Statistics (INS) confirm the country’s strong agricultural profile, with more than 2.8 million farms. It is safe to say that 1 in 3 EU farms is a Romanian farm. Although the contribution of agriculture to GDP is limited in purely economic terms, the huge proportion of the population dependent on this sector ensures that its importance goes far beyond economic figures.

The more extensive, traditional type of agriculture practiced by these farms has also made a positive contribution to the balance between agriculture and nature in Romania.

The number of farms decreased by 1% in 2023 and the area of farmland used by 1.7%, compared with the 2020 General Census of Agriculture, according to INS data.


If there were 2.887 million farms in Romania in 2020, three years later their number stood at 2.859 million, of which 2.834 million were unincorporated and 25,000 were incorporated. The number of incorporated farms remained the same in 2023 as in 2020. These figures show little structural adjustment over the past 3 years.

According to the results of the Farm Structure Survey, a total of 2.859 million farms used 12.55 million hectares of farmland in the reference year 2023. The average area of utilized agricultural land per farm in 2023 was 4.39 hectares, compared to 4.42 hectares in 2020. By farm category, the average area of utilized agricultural land per unincorporated farm in 2023 was 2.74 ha, compared with 2.73 ha in 2020. Similarly, the average area of utilized farmland per incorporated farm was 190.51 ha, compared to 194.78 ha in 2020.
The INS data also show that the number of very small farms, which used an agricultural area of up to one hectare, decreased by 1.3% in 2023 compared to 2020. Both farms using less than 0.5 ha of agricultural area (37.3% of all farms) and those using between 0.5 and 1 ha of agricultural area (16.3% of all farms) contributed to this decrease.

Much of the utilized agricultural area, 47%, was owned by users last year. Specifically, 36.8% of the utilized agricultural area was owned by unincorporated farms and 10.2% by incorporated farms.

Compared with 2020, in 2023 the area used as arable land (including greenhouses) decreased by 1%, the area used as pastures and meadows by 2.9% and the area used as permanent crops by 5.4%. Last year, the area used as arable land decreased to 8.483 million ha (from 8.571 million ha in 2020), pastures and meadows covered 3.617 million ha (3.724 million ha in 2020), permanent crops 325,000 ha (344,000 ha in 2020) and family farms occupied a slightly increasing area of 125,000 ha (compared to 124,000 ha in 2020).

While the engine of modernization lies with the larger commercial farms (basically the 25,000 incorporated farms), the value of the smaller family farms is indisputable from a social and environmental point of view. Romania can and should play a greater role in food production and food security in Europe, as there is still much room for further development in this region. Sustainable development, of course