Special Report

Canada Owns More Land in the USA Than Any Other Foreign Entity

24/7 Wall St. Staff

Published: March 28, 2023 8:34 am

Last Updated: March 28, 2023 8:40 am

This article was written with the assistance of A.I. technology, and has been edited and fact-checked by Melly Alazraki.

Do you ever wonder who owns the land you’re standing on? The answer might surprise you. It turns out that a large chunk of U.S. land is owned by foreign entities, with Canadian entities – both individuals, companies, and through ownership of American companies – owning more than entities of any other country.

According to data from the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Foreign Holdings of U.S. Agricultural Land through December 31, 2021 report, Canadian entities own 12.8 million acres of U.S. land. That’s a sizable chunk of territory, though it is not even 1% when you consider that the total land area of the United States is just over 2.27 billion acres.

So how did Canadians end up with so much land in the United States? Well, in general there is a lot of cross-border ownership of land. For example, U.K. entities own a number of wind farms and other properties in the United States. European oil giants like BP and Royal Dutch Shell have a presence in the United States.

Certain U.S. states have put restrictions on foreign ownership of land, but in general, it is not uncommon for foreign entities to own property in the United States.

Today, Canadian entities own 6.8 million acres of forest land in the United States. The vast majority of these holdings are in the southern United States, where Canada owns 4.0 million acres.

The total value of Canada’s landholdings in the United States is estimated to be around $11.6 billion. That might sound like a lot, but it is actually relatively small when you consider that the value of all U.S. land was estimated to be around $23 trillion in 2015.

Click here to see the foreign governments that own the most land in the US.