America's Land Is Worth $23 Trillion
Have you ever wondered, “How much is all the land in America worth?” You are so high.
Anyhow, the answer, according to government economist William Larson, is $23 trillion. At 1.89 billion total acres, that’s a little over $12,000 an acre, on average. (The value was computed for 2009, so it would be worth more today. It also includes only the lower 48 states, because who cares about the rest.) That’s just the value of the land, not any of the buildings on it. And by the way, only 6% of our nation’s land is developed.
Other facts to think about while you’re high:
- The federal government owns 24% of the land in America but that represents only 8% of the land value, because the federal government owns a lot of shitty land full of nothing.
- The 6% of the land that is developed represents the majority of the total land value. Crazy!
- Agricultural land makes up nearly half the land in America. The boring half.
- “California is the most valuable state by a large margin, worth approximately $3.9 trillion in 2009. The lowest average land value is Wyoming, with 62 million acres worth about $90 billion.” The Koch brothers could almost purchase the state of Wyoming for themselves, and I encourage them to do so.
Geography!
[The full report, via Real Time Economics. Photo: Flickr]
