46.7% Residential, 32.6% Open, 5.7% Utilities

February 15, 2022

Residential land occupies 46.7% of all land in Bermuda, while open spaces — comprised of nature reserves, rural areas, golf courses, recreational spaces and other open spaces — uses 32.6% of Bermuda’s land.

Utilities [airport, BELCO, docks, waste & transport] take up 5.7% of land, 4.4% of our land is used for Institutional [education, religious, government, police, hospital, prison & social], Tourism uses 2.2% of land, Industrial uses 2.4%, Commercial uses 2% and 4.2% of our land is classified as Vacant.

Bermuda Land Use chart 3883rwer

This is according to the recently released 2021 Environmental Statistics Compendium, which noted that among the two municipalities, the City of Hamilton occupies the least [176.3 acres] and the Town of St. George holds the most [341 acres], while a comparison of land use by parish showed that St. George’s holds the largest share [2,1617 acres] and Pembroke has the least [1,170.3 acres].

Bermuda, overall, is under 14,000 acres — you can buy properties in the U.S. that exceed the size of our entire island – and in listings of the world’s smallest countries when we are included [at times we are not as we are a territory] we are generally described as one of the top 10 smallest countries in the world by land mass.

Chart extracted from the report:

xAllChartsTablesEditedJan24

As far as the chart above, the report notes “The 2016 Land Use Survey was based on the 2012 digital survey of the islands, whose coastline was probably taken at the high water mark hence the discrepancy in total area which now stands at 13,430.39 acres [low time mark] in 2007 as a result of the more accurate 2003 Topographic Mapping Database.”

Map breakdown showing the various areas extracted from the report:

xAllChartsTablesEditedJan24

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Comments (2)

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  1. Sage says:

    Table 7.1 drafters couldn’t get the total acres and sub category headings in the right spot.

  2. Ringmaster says:

    Is this the same Department that creates the mythical numbers for inflation, GDP and population? I wouldn’t trust any Government stats, but the the good thing is that the stats are unlikely to be relied upon since Government does no planning. It’s all reaction and plastering the cracks as they form.