Area in Community Ownership: Changes over time

Area in community ownership in 2023: 208,597 hectares

Figure 3: There is approaching four times as much community owned land compared to 2000

The area of land in community ownership recorded in Scotland, Highland and Na h-Eileanan Siar as of 31 December 2023 by year ownership was taken, from 2000 to 2023

The figure is available in the Figures supporting document.

The area in community ownership in the rest of Scotland is also increasing. In the last ten

The area of land in community ownership in 2023 was 208,597 hectares, an increase of 20 hectares from 208,577 hectares in 2022.

The area of land in community ownership has increased by 156,243 hectares compared to 2000.

There are considerable differences in the increase in area from year to year, due to the purchase of a small number of very large estates. These large estates are located in Na h-Eileanan Siar and Highland.

years the area of community owned land in the rest of Scotland has almost doubled.

In the Community Ownership in Scotland 2022 publication, the total land area in community ownership in 2022 was reported as 212,342 hectares. This is higher than the total land area in community ownership in 2022 (208,577 hectares) reported in this publication.

During the production of this publication, a review of the assets in included in the community ownership dataset was undertaken and it was found that the membership criteria of a group, owning one asset 4,249 hectares in size, did not satisfy the definition of a community group used in the Community Ownership in Scotland publication. Membership of the group is not open to all of the local community, so the group and the asset they own was removed from the dataset resulting in the decrease in the reported land area in community ownership between the 2022 publication and this one.

Further information on the memebership criteria for community group can be found in the accompanying User Guide.