The cartogram above represents the size of the states of the EU based on the number of hectares they dedicate to harvesting oats, the larger the state the more hectares it dedicates to oat production. Spain dedicates the greatest amount of land but Poland is not far behind. These two countries combined account for just over one-third of the land dedicated to oat production in the EU.
Findings
- Spain accounts for the greatest amount of land dedicated to oat production. It alone is responsible for just under one out of every five hectares alloted to the crop in the EU.
- Cyprus, the smallest producer only attributes 0.01 percent of the total hectares in the EU to harvesting oat.
- Three states (Spain, Poland, and Finland) are responsible for just under half the hectares dedicated to oat production.
- Malta is the only state in the Union to not dedicate any land to growing the crop.
Caveats
- The data is from 2016.
- The borders represent the area of the state if it were based on oat production, the larger the state, the more hectares it dedicates to harvesting oat. The location of the states on the map is irrelevant.
- The map is presented in an Albers equal-area conic projection.
- The choropleth classification is based on Jenks or natural breaks.
- Malta does not dedicate any land to oat production and thus does not appear on the map.
Details
The countries that primarily harvest the crop are not geographically proximate and have very different climates. It seems that the production of oats is completely random as Spain (a southwestern state), Poland (a northeastern one), and Sweden and Finland (extreme north) use up the most land in the EU for oat harvesting.
The total reported area dedicated to the crop in the European Union is 2,616,800 hectares (6,466,254 acres) or 26,168.0 square kilometers (10,103.52 square miles).
Data
| State | Hectares Harvested | Percent of EU Total |
|---|---|---|
| Spain | 509,850 | 19.48 |
| Poland | 472,480 | 18.06 |
| Finland | 304,900 | 11.65 |
| Sweden | 173,340 | 6.62 |
| Romania | 170,350 | 6.51 |
| United Kingdom | 141,000 | 5.39 |
| Germany | 115,500 | 4.41 |
| Italy | 107,060 | 4.09 |
| Greece | 96,000 | 3.67 |
| France | 85,630 | 3.27 |
| Lithuania | 70,760 | 2.7 |
| Latvia | 62,100 | 2.37 |
| Denmark | 53,100 | 2.03 |
| Portugal | 42,410 | 1.62 |
| Czech Republic | 37,570 | 1.44 |
| Hungary | 36,310 | 1.39 |
| Estonia | 29,300 | 1.12 |
| Croatia | 26,570 | 1.02 |
| Ireland | 23,210 | 0.89 |
| Austria | 22,510 | 0.86 |
| Bulgaria | 15,320 | 0.59 |
| Slovakia | 13,590 | 0.52 |
| Belgium | 3,670 | 0.14 |
| Netherlands | 1,480 | 0.06 |
| Slovenia | 1,330 | 0.05 |
| Luxembourg | 1,090 | 0.04 |
| Cyprus | 370 | 0.01 |
| Malta | 0 | 0 |
Sources
Eurostat. 2017. "Database - Eurostat." Accessed November 26, 2017. http://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/data/database.