Where does the law protect women's rights to land?
Women farm much of the world's land but own little of it. The UN's Food and Agriculture Organization asks countries to report whether their law contains six safeguards for women's land rights: such as joint registration of land for spouses, spousal consent to land sales and equal inheritance for daughters and sons. The map counts how many exist. Only the countries that report to the FAO appear.
Updated November 2026. Spotted a mistake? Tell us.
How many of six legal guarantees of women's equal rights to land does the country's law provide?
Five or six safeguards (22)
Three or four safeguards (50)
One or two safeguards (26)
Read this before you quote the map
- Countries report this to the FAO themselves, in a voluntary exercise, so the map covers fewer than half the states, and those that report are not a random sample.
- The count shows what the law provides, not whether women can in practice register, inherit or defend their land rights, which in many places depends on customary rules and local officials.
- Data: FAO, SDG indicator 5.a.2, via Our World in Data (CC BY 4.0), for the latest year each country reported.
Sources
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TheLawToKnow Tools. Legal World Maps: Where does the law protect women's rights to land?. https://tools.thelawtoknow.com/legal-world-maps/womens-land-rights-law. Checked November 2026.
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