Swiss land use statistics — main land-use domains
bfs-land-use
- Publisher
- OFS/BFS
- Access method
api- Table id
CH1.AREA/DF_AREA_NOAS 1.1.0- Licence
- opendata.swiss terms of use "terms_by": "Open use. Must provide the source."
- Coverage
- Geography Switzerland and cantons · periods 1979-1985, 1992-1997, 2004-2009, 2013-2018 (complete); 2020-2025 (cantons published so far) · from 1979-1985 · to 2013-2018
- Gaps
- The fifth survey (2020–2025) is published canton by canton; on 2026-10-31 it covers LU, FR, SO, BS, BL, AG, VD, NE, GE and JU, so there is no national 2020–2025 value yet. Districts and communes exist in the dataflow but are not fetched.
- Used on
- STORY-04, STORY-09, AGORA-22
- Known limits
- Sample survey on a 100 m grid interpreted from aerial photographs, not a cadastre; each survey uses photos from several years (FJ). Since August 2024 the BFS revises earlier surveys retroactively when the current survey finds misclassifications — on 2026-10-31 for GE, VD, NE, FR, AG, LU, JU, BS, BL and SO (BFS 2026, "Arealstatistik der Schweiz — Erläuterung zur Berichtigung der Ergebnisse"); values of earlier periods can therefore change between fetches. Unproductive area includes lakes, rivers, rock and glaciers.
- Verification
- verification date: 2026-10-31 · method: Fetched from stats.swiss (DF_AREA_NOAS). The four national domains of 2013–2018 add up to 4 129 072 ha, which matches the BFS publication "Arealstatistik der Schweiz — Erläuterung zur Berichtigung der Ergebnisse aus den Erhebungen 1979/85, 1992/97, 2004/09 und 2013/18" (Neuchâtel 2026, DAM asset 36824948) — "rund 4,129 Millionen Stichprobenpunkte" on the 100 m grid (1 point = 1 ha). · checkedValue: CH 2013-2018: settlement 327201 + agricultural 1452738 + wooded 1313328 + unproductive 1035805 = 4129072 ha · checkedAgainst: https://dam-api.bfs.admin.ch/hub/api/dam/assets/36824948/master
- Processed file
- data/processed/bfs-land-use.csv
How current is this data?
- Freshness
- Up to date
According to its update rhythm, no newer edition is expected yet.
- Period covered
- 1979–2025
- Last change of the data
- Last check of the source
- Update rhythm
- Irregular
Ledger note (in English): Periodic; the current survey releases cantons as they are completed (last DAM update 31.08.2026).
- Votara checks the source
- Every week, and every day from 3 days before to 14 days after an announced publication date
The state is computed each time the site is built; this page shows it as of . Results of the accuracy checks
Transformations
- SDMX-CSV with labels (key NOAS.PERIOD.REGION = 1+2+3+4 . all . CH + 26 cantons). Category ids by NOAS04 code and checked against the German label: 1 settlement "Siedlungsflächen", 2 agricultural "Landwirtschaftsflächen", 3 wooded "Bestockte Flächen", 4 unproductive "Unproduktive Flächen". period = label of the survey period; aerial_photo_years = attribute FJ "Flugjahr" (years of the aerial photographs for that region). Script: scripts/fetch/bfs-land-use.ts
- Values copied as published (hectares; each sample point of the 100 m grid stands for 1 ha).
- Derivation recipe (not stored in the CSV, Votara computations to be labelled as such): total area = settlement + agricultural + wooded + unproductive of the same period and region (the four domains cover the whole territory; 2013–2018 Switzerland = 4 129 072 ha); productive area = total − unproductive. Density per km² = population ÷ (area_ha ÷ 100), with population from bfs-population-historic (CH) or the cantonal STATPOP values, taking the population year closest to the region's aerial_photo_years and saying so. "Settlement area per inhabitant" is also published directly by BFS (dataflow DF_AREA_SFE) — prefer it over an own calculation.