From the set of measures described in the structural elements (theme 1), Fig.  shows the context indicator C17 that highlights the spatial allocation and densities of agricultural holdings in Europe. We use the number of farms registered per square km as a relative measure. An arbitrary cut-off value of 100 farms per square km is applied to enhance the visualization because either higher numbers are a result of the location of the farm being recorded at an administrative center or few farms are registered to a fraction of a grid cell (after clipping with coast lines and other borders) with a small area. The occurrence of farms showing high spatial variations is mainly determined by factors of physical location and natural constraints, such as elevation, climate, and soil characteristics . Although we observe a lower farm density in large parts of Scandinavia and mountainous regions in continental Europe, the fertile soil areas in the valleys of France, Italy, and Spain reveal a higher farm density. The high concentration of agricultural holdings stretches along the Italian coast of the Adriatic Sea, the Iberian coast ranging from the region of Catalonia to Valencia, and to some extent it is found to be higher in plains and lowlands, such as the Pannonia basin enclosed by the Carpathian Mountains and the Transylvanian Plateau to the east and north, the Po Valley in northern Italy or along the rift of the Upper Rhine Plain. However, the divergences in farm density might also be explained by political, legal, economic, and cultural factors . The concentration of farms is low in Czechia and Slovakia, which had a tradition of larger communal farms in the period before 1990 .

On the other hand, high farm concentration might also be directly related to the widespread existence of small-scale subsistence

A subsistence farm can be defined as a farm household that produces food to feed their own family with very limited surplus for sale. See and for a more extensive review of subsistence farming. The term semi-subsistence farms is often used to describe agricultural holdings that produce and sell food for regular income on a small scale (i.e., a farm size below 5 ha).

Arable land includes temporary crops that do not last more than one season, such as cereals, fodder crops, dry pulses, root crops, or industrial crops . Figure maps the share of arable land in the UAA and highlights divergent geographical patterns. High shares are particularly evident in large areas of Scandinavia, south and east of the Carpathian mountains in Romania, and in several other regions such as the Paris Basin and South Aquitaine in France, Castile-Leon in Spain, the Po Valley in Italy, and the regions of Poludniowy and Zachodni in Poland. This observation coincides with the findings of , demonstrating that the crop sequence types are concentrated in specific parts of Europe. Substantially lower shares of arable land often arise from natural constraints, soil characteristics, or favorable conditions to grow perennial crops (e.g., fruit trees, olive trees, or grapes for wine). For instance, grassland is predominant in Ireland due to the mild maritime climate conditions, while permanent crops dominate in the European Mediterranean region such as in the southeast of France, Spain, Italy, Portugal, and Greece. This differentiation may be determined mainly by factors of physical location, natural constraints, and climate change, which impact the choice of crop production, compared to cultural traditions and political choices .

The livestock density index (LDI) provides an indication of the pressure of land-based animal farming on the environment, such as nutrient surpluses. The index is expressed as the number of LSU per hectare of UAA. A single livestock unit is a reference unit that facilitates the aggregation of livestock from various species and ages according to an agreed standard through the use of specific coefficients,

For example, the coefficient is 1 for most adult bovines, 0.5 for adult pigs and 0.014 for egg-laying hens.

Family farms have been the backbone of EU agriculture for centuries. An indication of their importance is that family farms accounted for approximately 90 % of the 9 million farms in 2020 . Although family farms constitute the most predominant farming business model, they operate at very different scales in the EU ranging from small semi-subsistence farms to much larger farms that are managed by the family and passed down through generations.

There is no formal agreed definition of a family farm in the literature, yet the most common element used to distinguish between family and non-family farms is the labor criterion, which implies that the majority of the labor force is supplied by the family . Based on the statistical definition of , we use the term family farm hereafter to refer to any farm under family management (i.e., sole holder holdings) where 50 % or more labor was provided by family workers .

With respect to corporate farming, no information on family workers was collected in the IFS as it is presumed that group holdings and legal entities do not have family workers, and thus by default, they are not family farms. In reality, this may not necessarily be the case, as a family-run business – where family workers make up 50 % or more – can choose a legal entity for legal and economic reasons.

Additional data limitations are described in Table  of the Appendix.

The aging crisis in agriculture poses a considerable threat to global food security, and it remains a major challenge in rural areas of Europe. The CAP is dedicating specific policy measures to support generational renewal to secure the transfer of farms from one generation to the next. We emphasize this topic in theme 2 on farmer demographics.

Figure depicts the current situation of an aging crisis by mapping the distribution of the average age of farm managers in Europe in 2020. The map highlights striking patterns for this indicator not only between and within countries, but also within specific regions. The average age of farm managers is typically higher in southern Europe than in central and northern Europe, and it is higher in northern Europe compared to central Europe. The youngest farm managers are found in a “belt” that runs from France through Switzerland, Austria, Czechia, Slovakia, and Poland. We can observe particularly high ages in some regions of Spain and Portugal, while Bulgaria and the northern part of Greece have younger managers than the rest of these regions. Moreover, Norway, Finland, and Estonia have older farmers than other northern countries. Yet, there is also significant differentiation in the age groups of farm managers within certain regions, such as Galicia and Catalonia in Spain, Veneto in Italy, or Plovdiv in Bulgaria (see Fig. d in Sect.  for further illustrations and explanations).

Analyzing the aging crisis of farmers in Europe is a daunting challenge due to the multitude of interacting factors. Farm entrepreneurship can be determined by cultural and political dimensions, where varying practices or traditions can occur in different regions with respect to how farmers are granted the responsibility to manage the farm. While in some parts of Europe farms will typically change the farm manager when the responsibility for the daily farming duties is altered, in other regions, a farm manager might keep the administrative responsibility much longer, even if another family or non-family member is actually responsible for the main agricultural operations. These divergences in the uptake of the farm management role can be explained by cultural traditions, legal aspects that create economic benefits and tax reductions, or the type of farming (i.e., a family farm or a more industrial type of farming). Nevertheless, the spatial variations in the aging pattern still point towards structural differences in management, and they can help to identify geographical areas that have a high risk of farm disappearance. A report on farming in Romania has indicated that older farmers generally manage smaller farms in comparison to younger ones, and the percentage of succession of ownership within the family was only 26.5 % in 2010 . By cross-correlating different management characteristics (e.g., age, gender, vocational training, management practices, and skills) on a grid cell basis, we can better understand the policies needed to keep or modify the current situation.

Although gender mainstreaming has become an important principle within the CAP, due to the poor implementation and weak commitments, several EU institutions and studies have criticized the lack of achievement of gender balance in agriculture . Moreover, there was a clear shortfall in specific measures to address gender mainstreaming in the CAP for the period 2014 to 2022 as no clear objective or statement on gender equality was included in the EU Regulation to support rural development and, additionally, no contextual indicator on the gender gap in farming was established. Nevertheless, current CAP strategic plans (2023–2027) are required to include a gender equality approach by setting specific targets at the national level to improve the participation of women in agriculture.

At a first glance, the gender gap in agricultural entrepreneurship seems to be unevenly distributed across Europe in 2020 (see Fig. ). The map indicates the opposite picture of what one would initially expect. While Finland, Sweden, and the Netherlands are well-known to rank high in the overall gender equality indicators established by various international organizations , Fig.  highlights a clear pattern of gender gap, with women uniformly underrepresented in agricultural entrepreneurship in almost all regions in these countries. In contrast, the share of women who are operating as a farm manager is, on average, higher in two Baltic countries (Latvia, Lithuania), Austria, Poland, Romania and parts of Italy, Greece and Spain.

Zooming into Spain, we can observe that the gender gap is much less pronounced in Galicia compared to other regions of Spain. Galician rural areas have preserved small-holding cultural practices based on polyculture and family farming instead of heading for exclusively industrial agricultural development. Moreover, Galicia has a long tradition of small-scale cooperatives representing one of the most important cooperative sectors in Spain, accounting for 25 % of agricultural enterprises in this region .

Recent research has shown that there is a positive association between cooperatives and female entrepreneurship . The role of women in cooperatives is determined by legal, cultural, and economic determinants, and it seems that this economic model is suitable for the work and lifestyle of women in such regions . Studies on social entrepreneurship have found that women prefer this corporate model over the more traditional ones, because cooperative principles, such as solidarity, fair and democratic management, and social responsiveness, fit well with their individual preferences and their perception to pursue personal and professional development . Moreover, women perceive cooperatives to be less risky due to profit and cost sharing .

These wide-ranging factors might partially explain the high share of women involved in farm management in Galicia, but further research is needed to better understand the interaction of exogenous and endogenous factors in a local context across Europe. Displaying the relationship between two or more variables in bivariate and trivariate maps might be useful for identifying common patterns in a European context.

Organic farming is an agricultural production method that aims to use natural substances and processes. It tends to limit the environmental impact of agriculture through a more responsible use of natural resources, allowing the maintenance of biodiversity and water quality, the enhancement of soil fertility, and the preservation of the regional ecological balance .

Expanding agricultural land in organic farming is at the heart of the Farm-to-Fork strategy under the European Green Deal. The European Commission launched an organic action plan in March 2021 to increase organic agricultural land, which should represent at least 25 % of agricultural land in the EU by 2030 . In 2020, organic agriculture covered an estimated 14.7×106 ha of agricultural land in the EU, which is equivalent to 9.12 %

See Eurostat tables: crop production in EU standard humidity (https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/databrowser/view/apro_cpsh1__custom_14006275/default/table?lang=en, last access: 6 January 2020) and organic area by agricultural production method (https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/databrowser/view/org_cropar/default/table?lang=en&category=agr.org, last access: 6 January 2020).