Of the total area that is used by humans (Agriculture, Urban and Built-up Land),

  • urban and built-up land is 1m km²,
  • agriculture is 48m km²,

so agriculture is 48 of 49 millions km² used, that’s 98%. The remaining 2% are all streets and housing and other infrastructure together.

    • ThomasWilliams@lemmy.worldEnglish
      2·
      7 hours ago

      High elevation land in the Himalayas and South America is unusable. Also land in the arctic zone in Europe and North America.

      Deserts are not actually barren.

    • Almacca@aussie.zoneEnglish
      3·
      9 hours ago

      That’s what I mean. 14% seems low just from eyeballing it. I guess if people live there, no matter how few, it gets counted as ‘habitable’. It always blows my mind when you zoom in on some of the most inhospitable places on Earth, you’ll still see little pockets of humanity eking out an existence there.

      • gandalf_der_12te@discuss.tchncs.deOPEnglish
        4·
        9 hours ago

        I guess if people live there, no matter how few, it gets counted as ‘habitable’.

        My guess is

        • barren land = little water. there’s probably a maximum amount of precipitation it must have a year.
        • glaciers = no energy. there’s probably an upper limit on average yearly temperature or sth
        • habitable land = has both water and sunlight (literally anything plants need to thrive)