A friend of mine is writing a report and would like to know what percentage of the world’s land is currently dedicated to military use. This would include such uses as military bases, military training areas, and weapons testing sites (including nuclear weapons testing sites). If global figures are not available, then figures for one or more major developed and militarized countries, such as the US, would also be acceptable. Any idea where he can find these figures, or published scholarly estimates?
According to this source, the percentage in the USA, including all ranges and training areas, is 0.7%.
I would guess the corresponding numbers for most countries are generally lower, since most countries spend far less per capita on armed force. For a few, like North Korea, it’s likely higher.
The question is problematic for countries that are run by the military.
Or some small European countries with NATO bases, Germany comes to mind. Even a few large bases in a small country might get the percentage up over .7%
For Vatican City and Costa Rica, I suspect it approaches 0.0%.
What does spending money have to do with it? Setting aside land won’t cost a government any extra money. I’m not saying you are wrong but there doesn’t have to be a direct correlation.
Actually, for other countries the proportion might be much higher despite lower military spending. This is because the US has gobs and gobs of land, much of it undeveloped. In fact, the source you cite indicates that the proportion of land which is unused forest dwarfs practically every other category except for grazing pasture.
I don’t see why. Just because a country is run by the military doesn’t mean that it doesn’t partition the land for military and non-military use.
Why? The Vatican City is so small and densely populated that its land use figures for the facilities it does maintain are probably vastly higher, relatively speaking, than almost any other country. Judging from the map, it seems the military barracks alone account for at least 1% of the land, as do the radio and railroad stations.
I dunno, how big is Vatican City, and how big are the barracks and/or armory for the Papal Swiss Guard, assuming that they keep such facilities within the Vatican and not elsewhere (ie: Switzerland or Rome) and just take the bus to work?
I found one data point for Germany, albeit from 1994:
A 1994 report of the federal government to parliament, regarding soil conservation policy, parliamentary reference: 13/2221
In 1994, 1.5 % of Germany’s area was used by the various militaries (down from 2 % at the end of the 1980s).
I expect the area to have been significantly reduced since 1994 - just recently my hiking group walked over a large training area decommissioned a few years ago (we had to keep strictly to the marked trails, though, as the area had accumulated unexploded ammunition from 1895 to 2005…) - it’s very probably still a larger percentage than the 0.7 % of the US.