Accredited official statistics

Organic farming statistics 2025: United Kingdom

Published 7 May 2026

This release presents final estimates of the land area farmed organically, crop areas, livestock numbers and numbers of organic producers and processors in the UK for 2025. A detailed breakdown of organic farming in England is available here. The results are produced from data compiled by approved organic control bodies. The total organic area referred to is made up of fully organic land and organic land in-conversion.

The dataset for this release can be found on the organic farming statistics page.

1. Key findings for the UK

In 2025:

• 540 thousand hectares were farmed organically in the UK.

• 56% of UK organic land was in England, 31% in Scotland, 12% in Wales and 1.2% in Northern Ireland.

• Permanent pasture (including rough grazing) accounted for 64% of organic land in the UK, covering 346 thousand hectares.

• 9.3% of organic land in the UK was used to grow cereals (50 thousand hectares).

• 2.8% of cattle in the UK were reared organically.

• There were a total of 5,004 organic operators in the UK.

2. Organic land area

2.1 Land area farmed organically

In 2025, the UK had a total area of 540 thousand hectares of land farmed organically, an increase of 7.3% compared to 2024. The total area includes both the fully converted area and area under conversion.

Organic production comes from fully converted land, which is land that has undergone conversion to meet organic standards. In 2025, the UK had 461 thousand hectares of fully organic land. This represents an increase of 1.4% from 2024.

Land in-conversion is discussed in detail in section 2.2.

Figure 1: Land area farmed organically in the UK, 2016 to 2025 (thousand hectares)

Year	In-conversion	Fully organic	Total
2016	25	483	508
2017	33	485	517
2018	33	441	474
2019	28	457	485
2020	31	458	489
2021	42	465	507
2022	40	468	509
2023	36	462	498
2024	49	454	503
2025	79	461	540

Notes:

1. Totals may differ to the sum of the components due to rounding.

Table 1: Area farmed organically by country, 2025 (thousand hectares)

Country	Area in-conversion	Fully organic area	Total organic area	Total area on agricultural holdings at June	Total organic area as % of June area
United Kingdom	79	461	540	16,773	3.2%
England	24	276	301	8,946	3.4%
Wales	2.4	62	64	1,770	3.6%
Scotland	52	116	168	5,024	3.3%
Northern Ireland	0.1	6.6	6.7	1,032	0.6%

Notes:

1. Total land area on agricultural holdings at June, excludes common land.

2. Totals may differ to the sum of the components due to rounding.

Source: June Survey of Agriculture as at 1 June 2025: Crops

2.2 Land in-conversion

Before an area can be considered fully organic, it must undergo a conversion process. In 2025, the UK had 79 thousand hectares of land in-conversion. This constitutes an increase of 63% from 2024.

The area in-conversion expressed as a percentage of the total organic area can give an indication of the potential growth in the organic sector. In 2025, land in-conversion made up 15% of the total organic land in the UK. This was an increase of 5.0 percentage points from 2024.

Figure 2: Land in-conversion as a proportion of the total area farmed organically in the UK, 2002 to 2025

Download the data for this figure

Text description of Figure 2: Figure 2 shows the area of land in-conversion as a proportion of total land area farmed organically in the UK from 2002 to 2025. The percentage of land in-conversion in the UK peaked in 2002, with the lowest percentage occurring in 2014. Since 2014, the area of in-conversion land has fluctuated but generally shows an upward trend.

3. Organic land use

3.1 Organic land use

Permanent pasture (including rough grazing) accounts for the biggest share of the organic area in the UK (64%), followed by temporary pasture (17%) and cereals (9.3%). The full breakdown of organic land use in the UK is shown in figure 3 and tables 2 and 3.

Figure 3: Organic land use in the UK, 2025 (thousand hectares)

Use	Area
Permanent pasture (incl. rough grazing)	346
Temporary pasture	93
Cereals	50
Woodland	20
Vegetables (incl. potatoes)	10
Other arable crops	9.8
Unutilised & unknown	7.9
Fruit & nuts	2.4
Herbaceous & ornamentals	0.6

Notes:

1. Includes fully organic land and land in-conversion.

2. Some land areas are provided without a crop category or land use description, therefore these are classified as unknown.

Table 2: Organic land use in the UK, 2022 to 2025 (thousand hectares)

Use	2022	2023	2024	2025	Percentage change 2025/2024
Cereals	49	50	50	50	0.4%
Other arable crops	11	11	12	9.8	-17%
Fruit & nuts	2.3	2.2	2.2	2.4	6.1%
Vegetables (incl. potatoes)	10	10	9.8	10	3.3%
Herbaceous & ornamentals	0.7	0.5	0.6	0.6	6.2%
Temporary pasture	96	91	90	93	3.3%
Permanent pasture (incl. rough grazing)	314	307	311	346	11%
Woodland	17	18	18	20	6.8%
Unutilised land	3.2	3.2	4.4	4.0	-9.9%
Unknown	4.4	4.2	5.2	4.0	-24%
Total	509	498	503	540	7.3%

Notes:

1. Includes fully organic land and land in-conversion.

2. Some land areas are provided without a crop category or land use description, therefore these are classified as unknown.

3. Totals may differ to the sum of the components due to rounding.

Table 3: Detailed fully organic and in-conversion land use in the UK, 2025 (thousand hectares)

Use	Area in-conversion	Fully organic area	Total organic area	Total area on agricultural holdings at June	Total organic area as % of June area
Cereals	2.4	48	50	3,013	1.7%
Wheat	0.9	20	21	1,670	1.2%
Barley	0.7	4.4	5.2	1,080	0.5%
Oats	0.3	17	17	198	8.8%
Other cereals	0.5	6.6	7.1	65	11%
Other arable crops	0.9	9.0	9.8	949	1.0%
Sugar beet	0.0	0.3	0.3	93	0.3%
Fodder, forage & silage	0.8	7.7	8.5	75	11%
Maize, oilseeds & protein crops	0.1	1.0	1.1	781	0.1%
Fruit & nuts	0.2	2.1	2.4	29	8.0%
Vegetables	0.4	8.0	8.4	103	8.1%
Potatoes	0.0	1.8	1.8	127	1.4%
Herbaceous & ornamentals	0.1	0.5	0.6	12	5.2%
Temporary pasture	8.1	85	93	1,313	7.1%
Permanent pasture (excl. rough grazing)	25	218	243	5,985	4.1%
Rough grazing	38	65	103	3,494	2.9%
Woodland	2.4	17	20	902	2.2%
Unutilised land	0.9	3.1	4.0	[x]	[x]
Unknown	0.5	3.4	4.0	[x]	[x]
Total	79	461	540	[x]	[x]

Notes:

1. Total land area on agricultural holdings at June, excludes common land.

2. Some land areas are provided without a crop category or land use description, therefore these are classified as unknown.

3. “[x]” indicates no comparable June survey data is available.

4. Totals may differ to the sum of the components due to rounding.

Source: June Survey of Agriculture as at 1 June 2025: Crops

3.2 Organic crops

The three main crop types grown organically are cereals, other arable crops and vegetables (including potatoes). In the UK the area of organically grown cereal crops increased by 0.4% to 50 thousand hectares in 2025. Other arable crops decreased by 17% to 9.8 thousand hectares. The area of organically grown vegetables (including potatoes) increased by 3.3% to 10 thousand hectares in 2025.

Figure 4: Organic crops in the UK, 2002 to 2025 (thousand hectares)

Notes:

1. Includes fully organic land and land in-conversion.

Download the data for this figure

Text description of Figure 4: Figure 4 shows the area of land, in thousand hectares, used to organically farm cereals, other arable crops and vegetables (including potatoes) from 2002 to 2025. Cereals have the highest area of organic farming, which peaked in 2009. From this peak, the organic area used to farm cereals declined until 2018. Since 2018, the area of cereals increased steadily until 2023 then remained stable. Other arable crops and vegetables (including potatoes) have had similar areas of organic farming throughout the time series. Other arable crops peaked in 2002 and vegetables peaked in 2008.

4. Organic livestock

Table 4: Detailed organic livestock numbers in the UK, 2025 (thousand head)

Livestock	Total organic livestock	Total livestock at June	Organic livestock as % of June livestock
Cattle	259	9,292	2.8%
For slaughter	116	3,617	3.2%
Dairy cows	46	3,181	1.4%
Other cattle	98	2,494	3.9%
Sheep	617	30,484	2.0%
Breeding females	340	14,780	2.3%
Other sheep	278	15,704	1.8%
Pigs	13	4,739	0.3%
Fattening pigs	5.8	4,332	0.1%
Breeding sows	1.3	316	0.4%
Other pigs	5.8	91	6.4%
Poultry	4,755	183,332	2.6%
Broilers	2,383	120,959	2.0%
Laying hens	2,233	42,703	5.2%
Other poultry	139	19,670	0.7%
Other livestock	6.7	[x]	[x]
Farmed deer	4.9	37	13%
Goats	1.2	107	1.1%
Horses	0.4	195	0.2%
Others	0.2	[x]	[x]

Notes:

1. Data relates to fully organic livestock only.

2. “Others” include camelids and any livestock not recorded elsewhere.

3. “[x]” indicates no comparable June survey data is available.

4. Totals may differ to the sum of the components due to rounding.

Source: June Survey of Agriculture as at 1 June 2025: Livestock and the Cattle Tracing System for cattle populations

4.1 Organic cattle

In 2025, organically reared cattle numbers decreased by 3.8% to 259 thousand head. This represents 2.8% of the total herd in the UK.

Figure 5: Number of organic cattle in the UK, 2016 to 2025 (thousand head)

Years	For slaughter	Dairy cows	Other cattle	Total
2016	99	81	116	296
2017	111	76	107	294
2018	116	88	120	324
2019	88	90	123	301
2020	122	60	122	304
2021	120	59	117	296
2022	122	57	119	299
2023	129	51	110	290
2024	120	48	101	270
2025	116	46	98	259

Notes:

1. Data relates to fully organic livestock only.

2. Totals may differ to the sum of the components due to rounding.

4.2 Organic sheep

The number of sheep reared organically decreased by 4.6% to 617 thousand head and accounted for 2.0% of the total flock in the UK.

Figure 6: Number of organic sheep in the UK, 2016 to 2025 (thousand head)

Years	Breeding females	Other sheep	Total
2016	431	410	841
2017	462	425	887
2018	447	380	827
2019	390	393	782
2020	400	332	731
2021	393	330	724
2022	385	349	734
2023	370	322	692
2024	353	294	647
2025	340	278	617

Notes:

1. Data relates to fully organic livestock only.

2. Totals may differ to the sum of the components due to rounding.

4.3 Organic pigs

The number of pigs reared organically decreased by 21% to 13 thousand head and accounted for 0.3% of the total pig herd in the UK.

Figure 7: Number of organic pigs in the UK, 2016 to 2025 (thousand head)

Years	Fattening pigs	Breeding sows	Other pigs	Total
2016	21	4.3	5.7	31
2017	25	5.2	8.7	39
2018	21	3.8	12	37
2019	21	3.4	9.9	34
2020	16	1.6	9.3	27
2021	21	2.9	7.8	32
2022	23	3.4	9.1	35
2023	15	2.0	5.7	23
2024	10	1.7	4.6	16
2025	5.8	1.3	5.8	13

Notes:

1. Data relates to fully organic livestock only.

2. Totals may differ to the sum of the components due to rounding.

4.4 Organic poultry

Organically reared poultry numbers decreased by 2.0% to 4.8 million birds and accounted for 2.6% of the total population in the UK.

Figure 8: Number of organic poultry in the UK, 2016 to 2025 (thousand birds)

Years	Broilers	Laying hens	Other poultry	Total
2016	1,574	1,135	112	2,821
2017	1,725	1,239	95	3,060
2018	1,879	1,413	89	3,381
2019	1,768	1,584	112	3,464
2020	1,708	1,981	97	3,786
2021	1,910	2,015	96	4,021
2022	1,577	2,005	83	3,665
2023	2,200	2,021	144	4,365
2024	2,511	2,174	167	4,851
2025	2,383	2,233	139	4,755

Notes:

1. Data relates to fully organic livestock only.

2. Totals may differ to the sum of the components due to rounding.

5. Organic operators

In 2025, there were 5,004 producers and processors registered with the organic control bodies in the UK, a decrease of 2.5% from 2024. A detailed breakdown of organic crop and livestock operators is available in the dataset accompanying this release.

Figure 9: Organic operators by type in the UK, 2016 to 2025

Years	Producers	Producers & Processors	Processors	Total
2016	3,398	161	2,804	6,363
2017	3,465	144	2,977	6,586
2018	3,483	136	2,569	6,188
2019	3,494	123	2,512	6,129
2020	3,407	197	2,150	5,754
2021	3,401	205	2,126	5,732
2022	3,285	223	1,988	5,496
2023	3,193	223	1,814	5,230
2024	3,118	227	1,788	5,133
2025	3,048	241	1,715	5,004

Notes:

1. Processors can include abattoirs, bakers, storers and wholesalers. The recorded location depends on the address registered with the control bodies and so larger businesses may be recorded at their headquarters.
2. In 2018 work was carried out to clarify how operators were recorded. This resulted in a number of operators that were previously recorded as processors being recorded in the correct categories of wholesalers/traders/retailers etc. We were unable to backdate these changes so earlier data are not directly comparable.
3. In 2020 work was carried out by some control bodies to group existing operators together, so they effectively became ‘one operator’ whilst previously they may have been separate operators with separate licences.

Table 5: Number of organic operators by type and country, 2025

Country	Number of producers only	Number of producers and processors	Number of processors only	Total organic producers and processors
United Kingdom	3,048	241	1,715	5,004
England	2,068	192	1,489	3,749
Wales	453	28	74	555
Scotland	396	15	119	530
Northern Ireland	131	6	33	170

Notes:

1. Processors can include abattoirs, bakers, storers and wholesalers. The recorded location depends on the address registered with the control bodies and so larger businesses may be recorded at their headquarters.

Table 6: Number of organic operators by country, 2022 to 2025

Country	2022	2023	2024	2025	Percentage change 2025/2024
United Kingdom	5,496	5,230	5,133	5,004	-2.5%
England	4,103	3,882	3,841	3,749	-2.4%
Wales	663	639	570	555	-2.6%
Scotland	528	521	530	530	0.0%
Northern Ireland	202	188	192	170	-11%

Notes:

1. Processors can include abattoirs, bakers, storers and wholesalers. The recorded location depends on the address registered with the control bodies and so larger businesses may be recorded at their headquarters.

6. About these statistics

6.1 Contact details

Public enquiries

Email: organic-stats@defra.gov.uk

Media queries

Weekdays 9am to 6pm:

Telephone: 0330 041 6560
Email: newsdesk@defra.gov.uk

6.2 Methodology and more information

For more information about these statistics and how they were produced, please see the about organic farming statistics page.