Proportion of total adult population with secure tenure rights to land, with legally recognized documentation and who perceive their rights to land as secure, by sex and by type of tenure.
Last updated on 1 February 2022
This indicator is currently classified as Tier II aiming to achieve Tier 1 status in 2022. The United Nations Human Settlements Programme (UN-Habitat) and the World Bank are the main Custodian agencies with the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) as partners.
Unit of measure: Proportion of people with legally recognized documentation of their rights to land out of total adult population, disaggregated by sex (%); Proportion of people who perceive their rights to land as secure, out of total adult population disaggregated by sex (%)
Official indicator data
The number of men and women with documented evidence of secure tenure rights to individually or communally held land, property and natural resources divided by the total number of adult population surveyed x 100.
* Select "year" below to see the most recent data for more countries.
| Indicator | Min-Max Number of years |
Countries / Obs | Min / Max Value |
|---|---|---|---|
| Proportion of adult population (both sexes) with legally recognized documentation on land | |||
| Proportion of people (both sexes) who perceive their rights as secured | |||
| Proportion of women with legally recognized documentation on land |
Other related indicators on the Land Portal
These Prindex indicators provide further data relevant to SDG indicator 1.4.2.
News and Blogs
Land tenure—the formal and informal relationship individuals and groups form with land—effectively determines who uses what land under which conditions. Tenure security is important to promote rural resilience and climate change adaptation, build endowments of assets, and provide adequate housing. But land tenure security is not static.
Our food system doesn’t work for everyone.
Nepal has stepped into yet another and very important milestone in guaranteeing security of tenure and access to land for all.
As all eyes, hearts and minds focus on the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic, the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) garnered attention on Tuesday when a new UN report revealed that only ten countries in the European region have levels of air pollution below the World Health Organization (WHO) recomme
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Library Resources
Collaborative international research on tenure dates back at least to the early 1960s when the Land Tenure Centre was established at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and conducted some studies in collaboration with CGIAR social scientists. CGIAR interest in tenure increased in the early 1990s when natural resource management was strengthened as a component of the CGIAR agenda and the Centers on forests, agroforestry, and water (CIFOR, ICRAF, and IWMI) entered the system.
This Special Issue provides an insight, collated from 26 articles, focusing on various aspects of the Fit-for-Purpose Land Administration (FFPLA) concept and its application. It presents some influential and innovative trends and recommendations for designing, implementing, maintaining and further developing FFP solutions for providing secure land rights at scale. The first group of 14 articles is published in Volume One and discusses various conceptual innovations related to spatial, legal and institutional aspects of FFPLA and its wider applications within land use management.
Indicator 1.4.2: Proportion of total adult population with secure tenure rights to land, (a) with legally
recognized documentation, and (b) who perceive their rights to land as secure, by sex and type of tenure
After the political change in Nepal of 1951, leapfrog land policy improvements have been recorded, however, the land reform initiatives have been short of full success. Despite a land administration system based on cadaster and land registries in place, 25% of the arable land with an estimated 10 million spatial units on the ground are informally occupied and are off-register. Recently, a strong political will has emerged to ensure land rights for all.
What can we learn from the 2020 Voluntary National Reviews (VNRs) and the SDG Indicators’ Global Database?
In 2015 we celebrated world leaders’ recognition of the foundational and strategic role that secure land rights for all –women and men, regardless of ethnicity, religion, place of residence, or civil, economic, social, or political status—must play to achieve a world free of poverty, hunger and systemic gender discrimination.
Indicator details
Experts reach consensus on measuring Indicator 1.4.2.
Experts agree on a set of household survey questions that will be included in the global and national-level surveys and censuses to measure how secure peoples’ land and property rights are.
IAEG-SDG recommends deleting Target 1.4
Global Donor Working Group on Land (GDWGL) confronts IAEG-SDG recommendation to delete Target 1.4.
3rd Expert Group Meeting: Using Administrative Data to Monitor SDG land
Particularly, the objectives of this EGM were to agree on the methodology to monitor indicator 1.4.2 pertaining to legally documented rights using administrative data and to assess availability of existing data and explore ways of institutionalizing reporting at country and regional level.
Sixth meeting of the IAEG-SDGs
Particularly the objectives of this meeting have been to review tier classification. The work of those in the land sector came to fruition when indicator 1.4.2 was finally bumped from Tier III to Tier II status.
High-Level Political Forum 2021
The ministerial declaration of the high-level segment of the 2021 session of the Economic and Social Council and the high-level political forum on sustainable development reiterated the urgency to ensure women’s equal access to, and control over, land and natural resources.
Twelfth meeting of the IAEG-SDGs
VNR Lab 4: How data is guiding sustainable recovery from COVID-19 for achieving the SDGs
The VNR lab will provide a platform for countries to share their experiences-both successes and challenges-in planning and preparing an evidence-based and data-driven VNR in the time of COVID-19. Data and statistics are guiding countries' effort in combating the virus, saving lives and recovering better. Over the last year, countries have faced unprecedented disruptions in statistical operations and a spike in demand for data to monitor and mitigate the effects of the global pandemic.
Eleventh meeting of the IAEG-SDGs
Counted and visible: Global conference on the measurement of gender and intersecting inequalities
Counted and Visible: The global conference on the measurement of gender and intersecting inequalities will create a common understanding among data users and producers on how to measure intersecting inequalities from a gender perspective in order to 'leave no one behind.' It will contribute to current work on data disaggregation to better inform policies and advocacy on gender equality and women's empowerment. The conference will also be a space for dialogue on gender and intersectionality, to have a better understanding on the needs of the most marginalized groups.
This event is co-organized by UN Statistics Division and UN Women.
United Nations Human Settlements Programme (UN-Habitat)
UN-Habitat is the United Nations programme working towards a better urban future.
World Bank Group (WB)
The World Bank is a vital source of financial and technical assistance to developing countries around the world. We are not a bank in the ordinary sense but a unique partnership to reduce poverty and support development.
The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations leads international efforts to defeat hunger. Serving both developed and developing countries, FAO acts as a neutral forum where all nations meet as equals to negotiate agreements and debate policy. FAO is also a source of knowledge and information.
The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) is the leading global environmental authority that sets the global environmental agenda, promotes the coherent implementation of the environmental dimension of sustainable development within the United Nations system and serves as an authoritative advocate for the global environment.
UNEP work encompasses: