Cannabis Freedom Index

Datasets Plant and market · not part of the score

Hemp grown

Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) · 1961 to 2024

Hemp is cannabis grown for fibre and seed, with little THC, and the Food and Agriculture Organization has recorded how much of it each country harvests every year since 1961.[1] In 2024 the largest areas were in France, North Korea and China, each about 20,000 hectares; 39 countries have a figure. The crop was once grown widely, as the atlas shows in Italian hemp rope-making and Hmong hemp cloth.

The records are patchy: some countries report only fibre or only seed, some only the area, and many stop for years.[1] Where fibre and seed overlap, the larger area is shown. The hemp chart follows the crop since 1961, and each profile’s hemp and CBD section gives the THC limit that separates hemp from the drug, such as the 0.3% the United States adopted in 2018.

Published by
FAOSTAT — Production: Crops and livestock products (QCL), hemp fibre and hempseed
Data
bulk download, all crops and livestock
File here
faostat-hemp.csv
See also
The interactive map · The chart · The files and their checksums
of 220 places covered
39
years in the file
1961–2024
the median country
340
places with several years
39

Hemp grown, on the map

The stronger the blue, the more hectares of hemp, for fibre or seed. Countries that have not reported hemp to FAO since 2015 are hatched. Select a country for its profile.

Under 100 ha100–1,000 ha1,000–5,000 ha5,000–20,000 ha20,000 ha or moreNo hemp reported to FAO since 2015

FAOSTAT, hemp fibre and hempseed, area harvested, latest year reported since 2015. Not part of the score.

Highest · Hemp grown

  1. France22,9602024
  2. North Korea22,0802024
  3. China18,8112024

Lowest · Hemp grown

  1. Slovenia02024
  2. Pakistan02024
  3. Malta02024

Country by country

Each place's latest figure, as on its profile. Select a heading to sort.

Further figures
AustraliaOceania1,200ha in 202412,600 t of fibre · 3,600 t of seed2024
AustriaEurope550ha in 20242,140 t of fibre2024
BelgiumEurope500ha in 20242024
BulgariaEurope0ha in 20220 t of fibre2022
CanadaNorth America14,500ha in 202417,551 t of seed2024
ChileSouth America4,614ha in 20244,357 t of fibre · 1,581 t of seed2024
ChinaAsia18,811ha in 2024106,345 t of fibre2024
CroatiaEurope0ha in 20240 t of fibre2024
CyprusEurope0ha in 20240 t of fibre2024
CzechiaEurope140ha in 2024130 t of fibre2024
EstoniaEurope0ha in 20240 t of fibre2024
FranceEurope22,960ha in 2024135,530 t of fibre2024
GermanyEurope4,800ha in 20242024
GreeceEurope40ha in 202460 t of fibre2024
HungaryEurope110ha in 2019130 t of fibre2019
IranAsia198ha in 2024204 t of seed2024
IrelandEurope40ha in 20242024
ItalyEurope340ha in 20243,110 t of fibre2024
JapanAsia1ha in 20241 t of fibre2024
LatviaEurope0ha in 20240 t of fibre2024
LithuaniaEurope780ha in 20242,800 t of fibre2024
LuxembourgEurope0ha in 20242024
MaltaEurope0ha in 20240 t of fibre2024
NetherlandsEurope3,370ha in 202424,570 t of fibre2024
North KoreaAsia22,080ha in 202415,523 t of fibre2024
PakistanAsia0ha in 20240 t of seed2024
PolandEurope1,050ha in 20243,630 t of fibre2024
PortugalEurope93ha in 197086 t of fibre · 40 t of seed1970
RomaniaEurope460ha in 20241,910 t of fibre2024
RussiaEurope6,357ha in 20241,318 t of fibre · 1,799 t of seed2024
SlovakiaEurope70ha in 202080 t of fibre2020
SloveniaEurope0ha in 20240 t of fibre2024
South KoreaAsia11ha in 202416 t of fibre2024
SpainEurope50ha in 2024150 t of fibre2024
SwedenEurope880ha in 20242024
SyriaAsia0ha in 19920 t of fibre1992
TürkiyeAsia721ha in 20241 t of fibre · 556 t of seed2024
UkraineEurope1,500ha in 2024700 t of fibre · 575 t of seed2024
United StatesNorth America7,630ha in 202427,412 t of fibre · 1,549 t of seed2024

What is counted, and how the file was made

How much hemp each country grows for fibre and for seed, in hectares harvested and tonnes produced, every year since 1961, as governments report them to FAO. It shows the crop itself, not cannabis use: industrial hemp has little THC. Fibre and seed areas overlap where one crop gives both, so the area shown is the larger of the two, not their sum. Records are patchy: some countries report only fibre or only seed, some only area, and many stop for years.

FAO's bulk file (last updated 23 December 2025, about 34 MB) was downloaded on 21 October 2026 and read by scripts/extract-faostat-hemp.py, which keeps the hemp rows: "True hemp, raw or retted" (fibre) and "Hempseed", production and area harvested, every year, with FAO's flag for each figure (A official, E estimated, I imputed, X another international body). The bulk file is too large to keep here. Countries are matched by their M49 code; FAO's "China" aggregate is left out in favour of mainland China, and former states (the USSR, Czechoslovakia, Yugoslavia) are kept in the file without a country, so the site does not show them.

The file belongs to FAO and keeps its terms; cite the publisher when you use it.

References

  1. FAO — FAOSTAT, crops and livestock products
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