FAOSTAT fertilizer use by nutrient (1961-)

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Downloads are disabled for this dataset: its license prohibits commercial use. The documentation, schema and sample rows stay available here.

Mineral-fertilizer use by nutrient from FAO's FAOSTAT Fertilizers by Nutrient domain (RFN): agricultural use of nitrogen (N), phosphate (P2O5) and potash (K2O) in tonnes, use per hectare of cropland and use per capita, ~243 countries and territories x 1961-2024, with NPK totals, nutrient shares, trailing 10-year total-use changes and a within-year per-hectare intensity rank. Who joins this: agricultural economists join fertilizer intensity on (area, year) to crop-yield and food-price panels; commodity desks read NPK use as the demand side of the fertilizer trade; climate/agri models use per-hectare intensity as the input-intensity feature.

Source: FAOSTAT Fertilizers by Nutrient Intelligence
Rows: 11,706
Columns: 25
Source cadence: Yearly
Last refreshed: Oct 9, 2026
Theme: agriculture

Column	Type	Description
area_code	integer	FAOSTAT numeric area code (countries and territories; regional aggregates such as World and EU27 are excluded from this panel). (unit: string)
area_code_m49	string	UN M49 code for the area, as published by FAOSTAT. (unit: string)
area	string	FAOSTAT area name. (unit: string)
year	integer	Reference year (1961-2024). Panel join key with area_code. (unit: year)
n_use_t	float	Agricultural use of nitrogen (N) nutrient, in tonnes (FAOSTAT element 5157). Honestly null where unpublished upstream — never imputed. (unit: tonnes)
p_use_t	float	Agricultural use of phosphate (P2O5) nutrient, in tonnes (FAOSTAT element 5157). Honestly null where unpublished upstream — never imputed. (unit: tonnes)
k_use_t	float	Agricultural use of potash (K2O) nutrient, in tonnes (FAOSTAT element 5157). Honestly null where unpublished upstream — never imputed. (unit: tonnes)
npk_total_use_t	float	Total N+P2O5+K2O agricultural use in tonnes (sum of published nutrients; null only when all three are unpublished). (unit: tonnes)
n_share_pct	float	Nitrogen's share of the area-year NPK total use, in percent. Null when the total is unpublished or zero. (unit: percent)
p_share_pct	float	Phosphate's share of the area-year NPK total use, in percent. Null when the total is unpublished or zero. (unit: percent)
k_share_pct	float	Potash's share of the area-year NPK total use, in percent. Null when the total is unpublished or zero. (unit: percent)
n_per_ha_kg	float	Nitrogen use per hectare of cropland, in kg/ha (FAOSTAT element 5159). Honestly null where unpublished upstream — never imputed. (unit: kg/ha)
p_per_ha_kg	float	Phosphate use per hectare of cropland, in kg/ha (FAOSTAT element 5159). Honestly null where unpublished upstream — never imputed. (unit: kg/ha)
k_per_ha_kg	float	Potash use per hectare of cropland, in kg/ha (FAOSTAT element 5159). Honestly null where unpublished upstream — never imputed. (unit: kg/ha)
npk_per_ha_kg	float	Total N+P2O5+K2O use per hectare of cropland, in kg/ha (the fertilizer-intensity headline). (unit: kg/ha)
n_per_capita_kg	float	Nitrogen use per capita, in kg/person (FAOSTAT element 5172). Honestly null where unpublished upstream — never imputed. (unit: kg/capita)
p_per_capita_kg	float	Phosphate use per capita, in kg/person (FAOSTAT element 5172). Honestly null where unpublished upstream — never imputed. (unit: kg/capita)
k_per_capita_kg	float	Potash use per capita, in kg/person (FAOSTAT element 5172). Honestly null where unpublished upstream — never imputed. (unit: kg/capita)
npk_per_capita_kg	float	Total N+P2O5+K2O use per capita, in kg/person. (unit: kg/capita)
use_flag	string	FAOSTAT observation flags for the three nutrient use measures, sorted-unique and '\|' joined (e.g. 'A\|E'); empty when unflagged. (unit: string)
per_ha_flag	string	FAOSTAT observation flags for the three per-hectare measures, sorted-unique and '\|' joined; empty when unflagged. (unit: string)
per_capita_flag	string	FAOSTAT observation flags for the three per-capita measures, sorted-unique and '\|' joined; empty when unflagged. (unit: string)
npk_total_use_10y_change_pct	float	Trailing 10-year percent change of total NPK use for the same area (exact year-10 match); null in the first 10 years and where either endpoint is unpublished. (unit: percent)
npk_per_ha_rank	integer	Within-year rank of npk_per_ha_kg across countries (1 = most fertilizer-intensive; ties share a rank). Null where the total is unpublished. (unit: rank)
row_hash	string	Deterministic 16-hex sha256 of area_code + year + the raw nutrient measures and flags (idempotency key). (unit: string)

First 10 sample rows — a preview, not the complete dataset.

area_code	area_code_m49	area	year	n_use_t	p_use_t	k_use_t	npk_total_use_t	n_share_pct	p_share_pct	k_share_pct	n_per_ha_kg	p_per_ha_kg	k_per_ha_kg	npk_per_ha_kg	n_per_capita_kg	p_per_capita_kg	k_per_capita_kg	npk_per_capita_kg	use_flag	per_ha_flag	per_capita_flag	npk_total_use_10y_change_pct	npk_per_ha_rank	row_hash
1	051	Armenia	1,992	15,000	5,000	5,000	25,000	60	20	20	31.06	10.35	10.35	51.76	4.2	1.4	1.4	7	X	E	E	—	95	74706e0147f2c6e4
1	051	Armenia	1,993	15,000	—	—	15,000	100	—	—	30.43	0	0	30.43	4.34	0	0	4.34	X	E	E	—	110	96096e6a596bfd53
1	051	Armenia	1,994	7,000	—	—	7,000	100	—	—	14	0	0	14	2.08	0	0	2.08	X	E	E	—	125	7f1f4d0772e613a1
1	051	Armenia	1,995	7,000	—	—	7,000	100	—	—	14.17	0	0	14.17	2.12	0	0	2.12	X	E	E	—	126	9017dcb5a2f53861
1	051	Armenia	1,996	8,000	—	—	8,000	100	—	—	15.81	0	0	15.81	2.44	0	0	2.44	X	E	E	—	122	6b1b604cbb7c9c65
1	051	Armenia	1,997	8,000	—	—	8,000	100	—	—	16.06	0	0	16.06	2.46	0	0	2.46	X	E	E	—	124	32c95ff725b2c01e
1	051	Armenia	1,998	9,620	—	—	9,620	100	—	—	19.51	0	0	19.51	3	0	0	3	A	E	E	—	119	2e8f579b1bc51fa4
1	051	Armenia	1,999	6,158	—	—	6,158	100	—	—	12.62	0	0	12.62	1.94	0	0	1.94	A	E	E	—	126	c18f060be2ee4bf9
1	051	Armenia	2,000	7,000	—	—	7,000	100	—	—	14.34	0	0	14.34	2.24	0	0	2.24	A	E	E	—	123	acfb3131bda63759
1	051	Armenia	2,001	5,000	—	—	5,000	100	—	—	10.14	0	0	10.14	1.62	0	0	1.62	X	E	E	—	131	e3def1475b6e1b48

Profiled Oct 10, 2026 from snapshot 20261009T224009Z-476df67f6716

Measured

Completeness: 95.7%
Rows: 11,706
Columns: 25
Columns with gaps: 16

Rows per yearyear · 1961–2024 · 64 years

19612024

Column	Missing	Distinct	Range	Distribution
area_codebigint	0%	214	1 → 351median 120	210 outside 1st–99th percentile
area_code_m49varchar	0%	186	—	00464 00864 01264
areavarchar	0%	199	—	Afghanistan64 Albania64 Algeria64
yearbigint	0%	63	1,961 → 2,024median 1,995
n_use_tdouble	8.3%	7,683	0 → 31,140,376median 24,533	212 outside 1st–99th percentile
p_use_tdouble	10.7%	6,597	0 → 14,393,255median 10,838	105 outside 1st–99th percentile
k_use_tdouble	13.2%	5,557	0 → 11,751,067median 6,244	102 outside 1st–99th percentile
npk_total_use_tdouble	8%	8,378	0 → 55,614,466median 43,172	208 outside 1st–99th percentile
n_share_pctdouble	8.9%	9,923	0 → 100median 55.47	107 outside 1st–99th percentile
p_share_pctdouble	11.4%	9,099	0 → 100median 23.79	104 outside 1st–99th percentile
k_share_pctdouble	13.8%	7,350	0 → 100median 18.91	101 outside 1st–99th percentile
n_per_ha_kgdouble	0.73%	5,636	0 → 16,057median 20.49	117 outside 1st–99th percentile
p_per_ha_kgdouble	1.3%	3,717	0 → 4,450median 8.54	116 outside 1st–99th percentile
k_per_ha_kgdouble	1.7%	3,624	0 → 4,450median 4.08	116 outside 1st–99th percentile
npk_per_ha_kgdouble	0.73%	8,963	0 → 16,171median 39.18	117 outside 1st–99th percentile
n_per_capita_kgdouble	0.01%	2,579	0 → 120.61median 3.54	118 outside 1st–99th percentile
p_per_capita_kgdouble	0.57%	1,825	0 → 149.78median 1.39	117 outside 1st–99th percentile
k_per_capita_kgdouble	0.97%	1,904	0 → 83.19median 0.78	116 outside 1st–99th percentile
npk_per_capita_kgdouble	0%	6,571	0 → 231.53median 6.41	118 outside 1st–99th percentile
use_flagvarchar	0%	15	—	A3,766 I3,341 X2,416
per_ha_flagvarchar	0%	2	—	E11,621 85
per_capita_flagvarchar	0%	1	—	E11,706
npk_total_use_10y_change_pctdouble	27.2%	8,020	-100 → 109,736median 29.01	172 outside 1st–99th percentile
npk_per_ha_rankbigint	0.73%	220	1 → 199median 91	162 outside 1st–99th percentile
row_hashvarchar	0%	12,221	—	00000a7952a88f031 000751f3d3daee771 000842ec581ff73c1

Point any LLM at the metadata endpoint — the documentation above is machine-readable too (JSON-LD + Croissant).

cURL

curl "https://datazimuts.com/v1/datasets/faostat_fertilizer_use_intel/fertilizer_use_by_nutrient_annual" | jq '{title, rows, columns_count, license}'

Python

import requests

ds = requests.get("https://datazimuts.com/v1/datasets/faostat_fertilizer_use_intel/fertilizer_use_by_nutrient_annual").json()
print(ds["title"], ds["rows"], "rows")

# Sample rows for an LLM context window
for row in ds.get("sample_rows", [])[:5]:
    print(row)

API endpoint: https://datazimuts.com/v1/datasets/faostat_fertilizer_use_intel/fertilizer_use_by_nutrient_annual

Tip: fetch /llms.txt for the full machine-readable catalog.

Cite this snapshot

Pinned to snapshot 20261009T224009Z-476df67f6716 and its content hash, so readers get exactly the data you used.

APA

FAOSTAT Fertilizers by Nutrient Intelligence. (2026). FAOSTAT fertilizer use by nutrient (1961-) [Data set, snapshot 20261009T224009Z-476df67f6716, sha256 476df67f6716]. Datazimuts. Retrieved 2026-10-10, from https://datazimuts.com/en/datasets/faostat_fertilizer_use_intel/fertilizer_use_by_nutrient_annual?snapshot=20261009T224009Z-476df67f6716

BibTeX

@misc{dz_faostat_fertilizer_use_intel_fertilizer__476df67f,
  title        = {{FAOSTAT fertilizer use by nutrient (1961-)}},
  author       = {{FAOSTAT Fertilizers by Nutrient Intelligence}},
  year         = {2026},
  publisher    = {Datazimuts},
  howpublished = {\url{https://datazimuts.com/en/datasets/faostat_fertilizer_use_intel/fertilizer_use_by_nutrient_annual?snapshot=20261009T224009Z-476df67f6716}},
  note         = {Snapshot 20261009T224009Z-476df67f6716, sha256 476df67f67163258cf78d84d01ab78f49bcecd52a2e9a2a033db4b229ed98f02; accessed 2026-10-10}
}

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<iframe src="https://datazimuts.com/embed/chart?dataset=faostat_fertilizer_use_intel%2Ffertilizer_use_by_nutrient_annual&lang=en&theme=auto&snapshot=20261009T224009Z-476df67f6716&x=year&y=area_code&agg=avg" title="FAOSTAT fertilizer use by nutrient (1961-)" width="100%" height="380" style="border:0" loading="lazy"></iframe>