Sign in

The Learning Hub will be closed for maintenance from 5am until 2pm on 5 November. For information, email: [email protected].

North East England

North East England

The diverse landscape in the North East region is characterised by maritime cliffs and broad moorlands.
Sheep grazing in Northumberland. iStock.com/Francesca Leslie

Place

Almost half of the North East's 622,000 hectares of farm land (46%) is permanent pasture which, as well as feeding livestock, is also an excellent carbon sink.

Production

Much of this upland area cannot be used to produce crops and 52% of the farm land in the North East is used for grazing livestock, while cereal farms cover 21% of the farmed area.

People

The north and west areas of the region are sparsely populated. Consequently, the North East has the largest average farm size of all the English regions at 146 hectares (ha), compared to 87 ha as the average farm size for England as a whole.

And despite the region having only 4,260 farm holdings – fewer than half that of any other region – more than 10,800 people work on farms in the North East.

Responsive Image
Yorkshire and the Humber
<p>Yorkshire and the Humber is home to a diverse range of farms, producing everything from wheat, pigs and corn to rhubarb.</p>
Responsive Image
North West England
<p>The climate here is highly varied and includes the coldest place in England, Cross Fell in the Pennines, and the wettest, the Lakeland fells surrounding Seathwaite and Cumbria.</p>
Editorial statistics sourced from Defra's current data set.
Data for workforce proportions taken from TIAH's own labour market information research.