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Federal government owned land
The federal government owns and manages more than a quarter of the roughly 2 billion acres of land in the US. These lands are managed for many purposes, primarily preservation, recreation, and development of natural resources. Five primary federal agencies manage about 95% of this federally-owned-and-managed land. The five agencies and the land they managed are:
Fiscal year
(Acres in thousands)
Bureau of Land Management
Fish and Wildlife Service
National Park Service
Department of Defense
Total federally-owned land
Total land in US
Percentage of land in US federally-owned
† Data source is the Congressional Research Service paper titled Federal Land Ownership: Overview and Data, dated February 21, 2020.
Federal government owned, otherwise managed, and leased land – non-public domain
Our Government sometimes refers to the land it owns and manages as public domain lands and acquired lands. According to the Congressional Research Service, public domain lands are those ceded by the original states or obtained from a foreign sovereign (via purchase, treaty, or other means). Acquired lands were obtained from a state or individual by exchange, purchase, or gift. About 90% of all federal lands are public domain lands, while the other 10% are acquired lands. Many laws were enacted that related only to public domain lands. Even though the distinction has lost most of its underlying significance today, different laws may still apply depending on the original nature of the lands involved. Owned, otherwise managed, and leased non-public domain land and related costs are as follows:
Fiscal year
Land acres 1
Owned and otherwise managed acres
Total annual operating costs (in thousands) 2,3
Total annual lease costs (in thousands) 2,4
† Data source is the General Services Administration (GSA) FY 2019 Federal Real Property Profile (FRPP) Open Data Set. The GSA reports that Department of Defense (DOD) data is not available for 2017 and 2018. In addition, the GSA reports that the “DOD made progress in addressing data quality concerns and is included in FY 2019. As a result, comparisons between FY 2019 and previous years’ data is not recommended.” It does not make sense for us to report 2017 and 2018 without DOD data, as it comprises a large portion of the data set. As such, we have limited the data in this section to the dates shown in the table above.
1 Includes federal government owned and managed museum trust, state government owned, and withdrawn land, and leased land. Does not include public domain land. Details may not add to total due to rounding.
2 It is difficult to compare owned and otherwise managed and leased annual operating costs due to their make-up. Owned and otherwise managed annual operating costs only includes operations and maintenance costs, whereas leased annual operating costs also includes rent to capture the full cost of the asset.
3 Owned and otherwise managed annual operating and maintenance costs consist of the following: 1) recurring maintenance and repair costs; 2) utilities (includes plant operation and purchase of energy); 3) cleaning and/or janitorial costs (includes pest control, refuse collection, and disposal including recycling operations); and 4) roads/grounds expenses (includes grounds maintenance, landscaping, and snow and ice removal from roads, piers, and airfields).
4 Lease costs comprise: 1) annual net rent to the lessor – the fully serviced rental to the lessor minus the annual operating and maintenance costs and 2) annual operating and maintenance costs – reoccurring maintenance and repair costs including: utilities (includes plant operation and purchase of energy); cleaning and/or janitorial costs (includes pest control, refuse collection, and disposal, including recycling operations); roads/grounds expenses (includes grounds maintenance, landscaping, and snow and ice removal from roads, piers, and airfields).
Owned and otherwise managed (OOM) and leased non-public domain land by agency as of 2019 was as follows:
Fiscal year
(In thousands)
Corps of Engineers
Department of Interior
Department of Energy
Air Force Department
Other department or agency
† Data source is the General Services Administration (GSA) FY 2019 Federal Real Property Profile (FRPP) Open Data Set.
State and local government owned and leased land
We are not aware of a source of state and local government OOM and leased land for each government.
Below is detail of federal and state-OOM and leased buildings and structures.
Fiscal year
Buildings 4
Total square feet (in thousands)
Total annual operating costs (in thousands) 3,6
Total square feet (in thousands)
Total annual lease costs (in thousands) 3,7
Structures 7
Total annual operating costs (in thousands) 3,6
Total annual lease costs (in thousands) 3,7
Buildings real property utilization 8
Repair needs 1,2
OOM building repair needs costs (in thousands)
OOM structure repair needs costs (in thousands) 5
† Data source is the GSA FY 2019 FRPP Open Data Set. The GSA reports that DOD data is not available for 2017 and 2018. In addition, the GSA reports that the “DOD made progress in addressing data quality concerns and is included in FY 2019. As a result, comparisons between FY 2019 and previous years’ data is not recommended.” It does not make sense for us to report 2017 and 2018 without DOD data, as it comprises a large portion of the data set. As such, we have limited the data in this section to the dates shown in the table above.
1 Includes federal government, foreign government, museum trust, and state government owned and otherwise managed.
2 Repair needs are only a required data element for owned assets. Repair needs is the objective amount necessary to ensure that a constructed asset is restored to a condition substantially equivalent to the originally intended and designed capacity, efficiency, or capability. This should exclude any consideration of the likelihood that the repair will be performed at any time before the asset’s disposition.
3 It is difficult to compare owned and leased annual operating costs due to their make-up. Owned and otherwise managed annual operating costs only includes operations and maintenance costs, whereas leased annual operating costs also includes rent to capture the full cost of the asset.
4 Buildings (examples): office, laboratories, hospital, warehouse
5 Structures (examples): airfield pavements, flood control and navigation, utility systems, navigation, and traffic aids
6 Owned and otherwise managed annual operating and maintenance costs consist of the following: 1) recurring maintenance and repair costs; 2) utilities (includes plant operation and purchase of energy); 3) cleaning and/or janitorial costs (includes pest control, refuse collection, and disposal including recycling operations); and 4) roads/grounds expenses (includes grounds maintenance, landscaping, and snow and ice removal from roads, piers, and airfields).
7 Lease costs comprise: 1) annual net rent to the lessor – the fully serviced rental to the lessor minus the annual operating and maintenance costs and 2) annual operating and maintenance costs – reoccurring maintenance and repair costs including: utilities (includes plant operation and purchase of energy); cleaning and/or janitorial costs (includes pest control, refuse collection, and disposal, including recycling operations); roads/grounds expenses (includes grounds maintenance, landscaping, and snow and ice removal from roads, piers, and airfields).
8 The reporting of utilization is only required for offices, laboratories, hospitals, warehouses, family housing, dormitories, and barracks.
Buildings detail (2019)
As shown in the table above, our Government occupies 2.8 billion square feet of building space in the US and US territories, of which 2.5 billion square feet are owned and otherwise managed and 286 million square feet are leased. Information by use and by government agency as of 2019 are shown in the tables below:
Buildings Real Property Use
Fiscal year
(in thousands, except per sq ft)
Operating and Maintenance Costs 1,4
OOM Annual Costs