Fertilizers have played an essential role in feeding a growing global population. It’s estimated that just under half of the people alive today are dependent on synthetic fertilizers.
They can bring environmental benefits too: fertilizers can increase crop yields. By increasing crop yields we can reduce the amount of land we use for agriculture.
But they also create environmental pollution. Many countries overapply fertilizers, leading to the runoff of nutrients into water systems and ecosystems.
A problem we need to tackle is using fertilizers efficiently: yielding its benefits to feed a growing population while reducing the environmental damage that they cause.
On this page you can find all our data, visualizations, and writing relating to fertilizers.
Explore data on Fertilizers
Research & Writing
More key articles on Fertilizers
Excess fertilizer use: Which countries cause environmental damage by overapplying fertilizers?
Hannah Ritchie
Increasing agricultural productivity across Sub-Saharan Africa is one of the most important problems this century
Hannah Ritchie
Do we only have 60 harvests left?
Hannah Ritchie
Interactive charts on Fertilizers
Fertilizer consumption
Fertilizer production by nutrient type
Fertilizer use per capita
Fertilizer use vs. GDP per capita
Nitrogen inputs per hectare of cropland
Cereal yield vs. fertilizer use
Eutrophying emissions per 100 grams of protein
Eutrophying emissions per 1000 kilocalories
Eutrophying emissions per kilogram of food product
Excess phosphorous from croplands
Excess phosphorous per hectare of cropland
Fertilizer application rates over the long-run
Fertilizer inputs per unit of agricultural land
Fertilizer use by nutrient
Fertilizer use per hectare of arable landLine chart
Fertilizer use per hectare of croplandStacked bar chart
Nitrogen fertilizer use per hectare of cropland
Phosphate fertilizer use per hectare of cropland
Potash fertilizer use per hectare of cropland
Total nitrogen inputs to crops
Which countries overapplied nitrogen without gains in crop yields?
World population supported by synthetic nitrogen fertilizers
World population with and without synthetic nitrogen fertilizers