Statistics

Extent and location

• Just under 400,000 hectares of land in England is common land which amounts to more than 3% of the total land area.

• There is common land in every county but there is a concentration in the upland areas of the north and west of the country.

• Almost one third of common land is in Cumbria and a further fifth in North Yorkshire.

• The size of commons varies hugely; 89 registered commons are over 1,000 hectares whereas over half of all registered common land units are less than one hectare in area.

• There are 7,039 registered units of common land in England although many of these will be contiguous and managed as one common.

Biodiversity

• Almost 57% of registered common in England is designated a Site of Special Scientific Interest.

Archaeology

• There are no statistics for the correlation between Scheduled Ancient Monuments and common land but commons exhibit a very high density of sites recorded on local authority Sites and Monuments records.

Access

• Prior to 2000 there was a high level of access on most common land in England although a large element of this was de facto.

• Since the introduction of the Countryside and Rights of Way Act in 2000 there has been a statutory right of access on foot for everyone to almost all common land in England.

Landscape

• 30% of registered common land is within Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty and 48% lies within National Parks.