Land designated as green belt, England
Land in England designated as green belt each year since 1997, in hectares, with the net change each year and the share of England's land area, from MHCLG's local authority green belt statistics.
Green belt
1,632,730 hectares
2025/26 · at the 31st of March 2026: 12.5% of England's land area, a net change of −480 hectares on the year before
Verified against source, 9 November 2026, 15:09 UTCSource: Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government. Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0.
Data table
21 periods, newest first
| Period | Area of land designated as green belt |
|---|---|
| 2025/26 | 1,632,730 hectares |
| 2024/25 | 1,633,210 hectares |
| 2023/24 | 1,633,870 hectares |
| 2022/23 | 1,638,310 hectares |
| 2021/22 | 1,637,560 hectares |
| 2020/21 | 1,612,980 hectares |
| 2019/20 | 1,614,720 hectares |
| 2018/19 | 1,618,290 hectares |
| 2017/18 | 1,622,140 hectares |
| 2016/17 | 1,628,250 hectares |
| 2015/16 | 1,629,430 hectares |
| 2014/15 | 1,630,460 hectares |
| 2013/14 | 1,632,350 hectares |
| 2012 | 1,632,900 hectares |
| 2011 | 1,635,820 hectares |
| 2010 | 1,633,050 hectares |
| 2009 | 1,632,680 hectares |
| 2008 | 1,632,680 hectares |
| 2007 | 1,632,900 hectares |
| 2003 | 1,668,160 hectares |
| 1997 | 1,653,490 hectares |
Source and licence
- Publisher
- Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government
- Check it yourself
- https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/green-belt-statistics
- Licence
- Open Government Licence v3.0 – Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0.
- Retrieved
- 9 November 2026, 14:55 UTC
- Raw files fetched
- https://www.gov.uk/api/content/government/statistics/local-authority-green-belt-statistics-for-england-2025-to-2026SHA-256 299efc569f96290515673795ea3f5e55b75915e6a2e36c5f2cbcd66afc1072cb · 14,840 bytes
- https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/6ad7439184361ce7947cd7d5/Live_Tables_-_Green_Belt_Statistics_2025-26.odsSHA-256 03e12a88bc12ff28cdcf2c8f4e0d82fc3f0a75191e72c72047faefc07e805671 · 91,201 bytes
Verification
Verified against source, 9 November 2026, 15:09 UTC Run at 9 November 2026, 15:09 UTC; 21 of 21 figures matched the live source.
| Result | Check | Detail |
|---|---|---|
| Pass | Provenance recorded | Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government; Open Government Licence v3.0; retrieved 2026-11-09T14:55:00Z; 2 raw file(s) |
| Pass | Raw files match recorded SHA-256 | 2 of 2 files intact |
| Pass | Re-parsing raw files reproduces figures | 21 of 21 figures and the headline reproduced; the meta's accreditation and net_change and share match |
| Pass | Figures are finite numbers | 21 figures, 0 invalid |
| Pass | Live source matches every figure | 21 of 21 figures match exactly after downloading 2 source file(s) again (2 byte-identical); the headline matches; the meta's accreditation and net_change and share match |
| Pass | GOV.UK table is current | latest period 2026-03-31 ended 223 days before retrieval (limit 800), from Accompanying tables: total area and net changes to green belt by local authority district 2025-26 (annual) |
| Pass | The time series by authority gives England's areas | 21 of 21 figures match Time_series_by_LA's England row, rounded to the nearest 10 hectares |
| Pass | Each net change is the change in the rounded areas | 20 of 20 cases of the years' net changes are the change in the areas MHCLG rounds to 10 hectares, within that rounding within 10 (12 exactly) |
| Pass | The Net_changes table gives the latest two years | 3 of 3 cases of the Net_changes table's England figures are Area_since_1997's |
| Pass | Source page answers | https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/green-belt-statistics – HTTP 200 |
Notes
- Land designated as green belt at the 31st of March, rounded to the nearest 10 hectares, with the net change from the year before as MHCLG gives it from unrounded areas, so a change can differ by 10 from the rounded areas' difference (MHCLG's note 1).
- MHCLG gives figures for 1997 and 2003, then each year from 2007; from 2007 the New Forest is no longer counted as green belt, and its figures for 2006 to 2007 are not comparable with those before (its notes 8 and 9).
- The Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government publishes these as accredited official statistics.