Land and data-center sites, North Carolina
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What is taking North Carolina farmland?

North Carolina has about 1.3 million fewer acres in farms than in 1997. In the most detailed public model, low-density housing accounts for most farmland lost to development. Solar takes a small share, no public record totals what data centers take, and every one of these uses removes farmland where it goes.

Get a read on your land

Quick summary: This guide checks what the public record says about farmland loss in North Carolina and what causes it. It is for farm and forest owners, and for residents weighing a project proposed on farmland. The key takeaway: the loss is real, low-density housing accounts for most of it in the best public model, and every use that replaces farmland still removes it.

How much farmland North Carolina has lost

North Carolina has about 1.3 million fewer acres in farms than it had in 1997. The 2022 Census of Agriculture shows the trend:

Census year Farms Land in farms (acres)
1997 59,120 9,444,867
2002 53,930 9,079,001
2007 52,913 8,474,671
2012 50,218 8,414,756
2017 46,418 8,430,522
2022 42,817 8,128,136

That is 16,303 fewer farms and 1,316,731 fewer acres. The 2025 annual survey estimates 41,300 farms on 8.0 million acres, down from 42,100 farms on 8.1 million acres in 2024. The annual survey and the census use different methods, so compare each series with itself.

The loss did not fall on harvested crops. Harvested cropland was 4,269,966 acres in 1997 and 4,353,455 acres in 2022. The decline came from other farm land: cropland that was not harvested, plus farm woodland, pasture, and other acres. Land in farms measures what farms operate. It does not say whether land that left a farm was paved, planted in pine, or left idle.

What is taking North Carolina farmland

Low-density housing takes most of the farmland lost to development, according to the most detailed public model. American Farmland Trust’s model estimates that development converted or compromised 732,000 acres of North Carolina agricultural land from 2001 to 2016. It classes 387,000 of those acres as “Nationally Significant,” the land best suited to growing food and crops.

The model attributes roughly 78 percent of the converted or compromised land to low-density residential use. That category covers scattered homes that fragment farmland, not only subdivisions. The hot spots were around Raleigh-Durham, Charlotte, Fayetteville, Greenville, and Winston-Salem. The organization is a farmland conservation group, and the estimate is its own model, not a federal count.

Population growth adds pressure. The Census Bureau estimates that North Carolina gained 145,907 residents from July 2024 to July 2025, the third-largest gain of any state. The estimate does not say where new homes went.

Where the trend points

The same group projects more loss, with the amount set by how the state grows. Its 2040 scenario report estimates North Carolina agricultural conversion from 2016 to 2040 under three scenarios:

  • Better Built Cities (more compact growth): 661,500 acres, 6.4 percent of the state’s mapped agricultural land.
  • Business as Usual (recent patterns continue): 1,197,300 acres, 11.6 percent.
  • Runaway Sprawl (more scattered growth): 1,678,100 acres, 16.2 percent.

These are scenarios, not forecasts. The report’s mapped base of 10,361,900 agricultural acres differs from the census count of land in farms.

Forest land is changing too

North Carolina’s estimated forest area is shrinking slowly while the carbon it stores grows. The Forest Service’s 2024 snapshot estimates 18,750,216 acres of forest land in 2019 and 18,509,817 acres in 2024. Its estimate of forest carbon storage rose from about 1.61 billion to 1.65 billion metric tons. The report notes that the differences include cutting, land-use change, and changes in method. Each measure answers a different question.

What solar and data centers take compared with housing

Solar takes a small share of farmland nationally, and no public record totals what data centers take in North Carolina. A federal study of rural solar and wind sites estimates the 2020 footprint of solar farms at about 336,000 acres and wind farms at about 88,000 acres. Together that is about 0.05 percent of the country’s 897 million acres in farms.

The same study shows where the pressure concentrates:

  • North Carolina had a large share of the country’s solar installations from 2009 to 2020.
  • Nationally, 43 percent of solar farms sat on cropland before construction.
  • Fifteen percent of solar sites shifted out of agriculture after installation.

Data-center campuses vary widely in size, and no agency publishes how much North Carolina farmland they occupy. How much land do data-center campuses actually take per megawatt? reports what public filings show. In some cases the choice on a tract is direct. A 2025 Charlotte rezoning plan for about 79.54 acres proposes either a data center or houses and apartments on the same land.

A campus on cropland still removes cropland. New roofs and pavement change runoff. See Impervious surface: what counts and why it limits land.

The short version: Farmland loss is real and mostly residential in the best public model. Solar is a small share nationally but concentrated in North Carolina. Data-center acreage has no public total. The fair comparison is between the actual alternatives for one tract.

What each land use costs a county

In two North Carolina county studies, housing cost more in services than it paid in revenue, and farm, forest, and commercial land paid more than they used. Cost of Community Services studies measure that balance. Wake County’s study found these costs per dollar of revenue for fiscal 2021 to 2022:

Land use Wake County Chatham County
Residential 1.09 dollars 1.18 dollars
Commercial and industrial 0.08 dollars 0.29 dollars
Farm and forest 0.24 dollars 0.35 dollars

The Chatham figures come from the county’s farmland protection plan packet. The Wake study calls these results snapshots in time that are neither predictive nor speculative. They describe existing county finances, not one new project. Data center tax revenue: what a North Carolina county keeps covers a campus’s tax side.

Take action: If you own farm or forest land near growth, learn how the record reads your tract before a buyer makes the first offer. Start with Is your land a data-center site?

What the public record cannot show

The public record cannot show what will happen to one farm. The census counts farms and acres, not parcels. The farmland model is historical. No record counts idle farmland by parcel, and no record counts idle former tobacco land. North Carolina tobacco land: what changed and where it goes now covers that crop’s history.

An owner who wants to keep land in farming has tools. Conservation easement: what it means for land buyers explains one. An owner weighing a sale should read Selling farm or timber land for development. For the wider debate, see Are data centers bad? The objections, checked against the record.

Key recap

  • North Carolina had 16,303 fewer farms and 1,316,731 fewer acres in farms in 2022 than in 1997. Harvested cropland held steady.
  • In the most detailed public model, development converted or compromised 732,000 acres from 2001 to 2016, about 78 percent of it for low-density housing.
  • Projected conversion from 2016 to 2040 ranges from 661,500 to 1,678,100 acres, depending on how the state grows.
  • Utility-scale solar used about 0.05 percent of national farmland in 2020, with a large share of installations in North Carolina. No public record totals data-center farmland.
  • Two county studies found that housing cost more in services than it paid, while farm, forest, and commercial land paid more than they used.

Questions

How much farmland has North Carolina lost?

The Census of Agriculture shows 1,316,731 fewer acres in farms in 2022 than in 1997, and 16,303 fewer farms. The 2025 annual survey estimates 8.0 million acres in farms.

What is the biggest cause of farmland loss in North Carolina?

Low-density residential development, in the most detailed public model. It accounts for roughly 78 percent of the agricultural land developed or compromised from 2001 to 2016.

Do data centers take a lot of North Carolina farmland?

No public record totals it. Some campuses sit on former farmland and remove it. Compare a specific project with the actual alternatives for that tract.

Does solar take farmland in North Carolina?

Yes. North Carolina had a large share of the country’s solar installations from 2009 to 2020. Nationally, 43 percent of solar farms sat on cropland before construction, though solar and wind together used about 0.05 percent of farmland in 2020.

References

Primary sources cited on this page, in APA style.

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