2021 Land Report 100 Release, Acreage Amounts Keep Climbing

Land Report magazine released the 2021 Land Report 100, which ranks the top landowners in the U.S. by acreage. Now in its 15th year, the report keeps growing in the amount of acres landowners own and purchase. Only domestic holdings can be reported and no leased land. The largest landowner in the U.S. for 2021 is California’s Emmerson family, owners of Sierra Pacific Industries and 2.33 million deeded acres. Liberty Media Chairman John Malone comes in at No. 2 with 2.2 million acres. Other top landowners include the Reed family in Washington at 2.1 million acres, CNN founder Ted Turner at 2 million acres and Los Angeles Rams owner Stan Kroenke with 1.6 million. Bill Gates remains the largest private farmland owner with 269,000 acres.

For perspective, when the first report was released 15 years ago, Burt’s Bees founder Roxanne Quimby landed the last spot of the top 100 with just 75,000 acres. Now to qualify, a minimum of 156,000 acres would be needed.

Read more on land ownership in the U.S.