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Understand Idaho

Federal land in Idaho

61.9%

Share of Idaho's land area owned by the federal government, 2018

Source: Congressional Research Service, Federal Land Ownership: Overview and Data, Report R42346. Data period 2018. Published .

Federal acreage administered by the five agencies CRS tabulates, as a percent of the state's total land area, as of September 30, 2018.

Change and comparison

Among 50 states and the District of Columbia, Idaho ranked 3rd highest in 2018. Nevada was highest at 80.1% and Iowa lowest at 0.3%.

Among Idaho and its 6 neighboring states, Idaho ranks 3rd highest; Utah is next above at 63.1% and Oregon next below at 52.3%.

Idaho was 34.8 pts above the national figure of 27.1%.

Forest Service is the largest category at 20,447,859 acres; Bureau of Land Management is next at 11,776,995 acres.

Federal acres by agency

Land administered by the Bureau of Land Management, Forest Service, Fish and Wildlife Service, National Park Service, or Department of Defense, as of September 30, 2018 (September 30, 2017 for the Department of Defense).

  1. Forest Service20,447,859
  2. Bureau of Land Management11,776,995
  3. National Park Service511,963
  4. Fish and Wildlife Service49,733
  5. Department of Defense3,098

Source: Congressional Research Service, Federal Land Ownership: Overview and Data, Report R42346. Data period 2018. Published .

Data table (5 rows)
Agency2018 (acres)
Forest Service20,447,859
Bureau of Land Management11,776,995
National Park Service511,963
Fish and Wildlife Service49,733
Department of Defense3,098

Compared with other states

  1. Nevada80.1%
  2. Utah63.1%
  3. Idaho61.9%
  4. Oregon52.3%
  5. Wyoming46.7%
  6. Montana29.0%
  7. Washington28.6%
  8. United States27.1%
  9. Kansas0.5%
  10. Connecticut0.3%
  11. Iowa0.3%

Source: Congressional Research Service, Federal Land Ownership: Overview and Data, Report R42346. Data period 2018. Published .

The first 10 of 52 rows; the full table is below.

State2018
1. Nevada80.1%
2. Utah63.1%
3. Idaho61.9%
4. Alaska60.9%
5. Oregon52.3%
6. Wyoming46.7%
7. California45.4%
8. Arizona38.6%
9. Colorado36.2%
10. New Mexico31.7%
Data table (52 rows)
State2018
1. Nevada80.1%
2. Utah63.1%
3. Idaho61.9%
4. Alaska60.9%
5. Oregon52.3%
6. Wyoming46.7%
7. California45.4%
8. Arizona38.6%
9. Colorado36.2%
10. New Mexico31.7%
11. Montana29.0%
12. Washington28.6%
13. United States27.1%
14. District of Columbia24.7%
15. Hawaii20.2%
16. New Hampshire14.0%
17. Florida12.9%
18. Michigan10.0%
19. Arkansas9.4%
20. Virginia9.3%
21. North Carolina7.8%
22. Vermont7.8%
23. West Virginia7.4%
24. Minnesota6.8%
25. South Dakota5.4%
26. Wisconsin5.3%
27. Georgia5.2%
28. Mississippi5.1%
29. Tennessee4.8%
30. Louisiana4.7%
31. South Carolina4.5%
32. Kentucky4.3%
33. North Dakota3.9%
34. Missouri3.8%
35. New Jersey3.6%
36. Maryland3.2%
37. Alabama2.7%
38. Delaware2.4%
39. Pennsylvania2.2%
40. Texas1.9%
41. Indiana1.7%
42. Maine1.5%
43. Oklahoma1.5%
44. Illinois1.2%
45. Massachusetts1.2%
46. Ohio1.2%
47. Nebraska1.1%
48. New York0.8%
49. Rhode Island0.7%
50. Kansas0.5%
51. Connecticut0.3%
52. Iowa0.3%

Source

Organization
Congressional Research Service
Dataset
Federal Land Ownership: Overview and Data, Report R42346
Geography
Nation and states (50 states plus the District of Columbia)
Time coverage
2004, 2018
Update frequency
Irregular; CRS reissues this report every few years
Published
Original file
https://www.congress.gov/crs_external_products/R/PDF/R42346/R42346.18.pdf
Methodology
https://crsreports.congress.gov/product/pdf/R/R42346
License
U.S. federal government work; CRS products are in the public domain.
Our copy
Federal Land Ownership: Overview and Data, Report R42346, built by scripts/fetch-crs-federal-land.py

Caveats

  • Total state acreage is the 2004 GSA Federal Real Property Profile figure, fourteen years before the 2018 federal acreage it is paired with to compute the land share.
  • Federal acreage covers only the five agencies CRS tabulates (Bureau of Land Management, Forest Service, Fish and Wildlife Service, National Park Service, Department of Defense); other agencies' federal land is excluded.
  • Covers the 50 states and the District of Columbia only; U.S. territories, overseas land, and submerged Outer Continental Shelf lands are excluded.
  • This is CRS report R42346's newest edition, version 18 (February 21, 2020); no later edition has been issued.

Cite

Cite this page as Understand Idaho, “Federal land in Idaho”, https://understandidaho.com/land/public-lands/, retrieved on the date you read it, and the publisher named above for the figures themselves. The dataset behind it is described in the data catalog.

This page was last updated .