Key points from the maps
- The graphic is a grid of 30 maps of the lower 48 states, one per crop, shading each county by the share of its land used to grow that crop.
- The maps run from the crop grown in the fewest counties (avocados) to the one grown in the most (hay).
- Nuts and citrus are the most concentrated: avocados, pistachios, almonds and lemons are mostly in California, and oranges in Florida.
- Corn and soybeans fill the Midwest Corn Belt, and wheat and sorghum dominate the Great Plains.
- Hay is grown almost everywhere. By acres harvested it is the most common crop in the US, followed by corn, soybeans and wheat [1].
Geographic distribution of select US crops in text
Title: Geographic distribution of select U.S. crops. Subtitle: Plotted by percent of county dedicated to growing crop. Arranged from those grown in the fewest to the most counties. Average number of acres grown, 2000-2021. Footer: Data, USDA Quick Stats; more at erdavis.com.
Each small map shades counties, with darker colour meaning a larger share of the county’s land in that crop. There is no numeric scale, and no states or cities are labelled. The colour of each map shifts from teal for the rarest crops through blue grey and purple to magenta for the most widespread. The descriptions below are our reading of where each map is shaded, in the graphic’s order.
| Order | Crop | Where the map is shaded |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Avocados | Coastal Southern California, with a small spot in far southern Florida |
| 2 | Pistachios | California’s San Joaquin Valley |
| 3 | Almonds | California’s Central Valley |
| 4 | Lentils | Northern Montana and North Dakota, with a small area in eastern Washington and northern Idaho |
| 5 | Lemons | Southern California and south western Arizona |
| 6 | Millet | Where north eastern Colorado, western Nebraska and Kansas meet, with some in South Dakota |
| 7 | Rice | California’s Sacramento Valley, eastern Arkansas and the lower Mississippi valley, and southern Louisiana |
| 8 | Oranges | Central and southern Florida, with faint shading in California |
| 9 | Peanuts | Southern Georgia, south eastern Alabama, the Florida panhandle and the Carolinas, plus West Texas and Oklahoma |
| 10 | Tobacco | Kentucky, Tennessee, North Carolina, southern Virginia and South Carolina |
| 11 | Sunflowers | Heaviest in North and South Dakota, then western Nebraska, north eastern Colorado and Kansas |
| 12 | Raspberries | Western Washington and Oregon and coastal California, with scattered counties in the Great Lakes states and the Northeast |
| 13 | Cotton | West Texas and Oklahoma, the Mississippi Delta, and Alabama, Georgia and the Carolinas, with some in Arizona and California |
| 14 | Cherries | Washington, Oregon and California, western Michigan, and New York and Pennsylvania |
| 15 | Okra | Scattered across the South East, from Texas and Louisiana to Georgia, the Carolinas and Florida |
| 16 | Strawberries | Coastal California, western Oregon and Washington, Florida, and scattered counties in the Northeast and Upper Midwest |
| 17 | Rye | Georgia and South Carolina, Oklahoma, and parts of the Upper Midwest and Northeast |
| 18 | Pecans | Texas, Oklahoma, Louisiana, Georgia and Alabama |
| 19 | Barley | Montana, North Dakota, Idaho and Washington, with lighter shading in the Mid-Atlantic and northern Maine |
| 20 | Peas | Montana, North Dakota and eastern Washington and northern Idaho |
| 21 | Sorghum | Kansas, western Oklahoma and Texas |
| 22 | Grapes | California above all, then Washington and Oregon, New York, Pennsylvania and Michigan |
| 23 | Apples | Central Washington, Michigan, New York, Pennsylvania and the Appalachian area of Virginia, plus California |
| 24 | Oats | The Dakotas, Minnesota, Wisconsin and Iowa, with patches in Texas, the Northeast and northern Maine |
| 25 | Soybeans | The Corn Belt (Iowa, Illinois, Indiana, Minnesota, Missouri, Ohio) and the Mississippi Delta |
| 26 | Beans | North Dakota and Minnesota, Michigan, Nebraska, Idaho and other western states |
| 27 | Tomatoes | California’s Central Valley, Florida and parts of the Mid-Atlantic |
| 28 | Wheat | Kansas, Oklahoma, the Texas Panhandle, North Dakota, Montana and eastern Washington |
| 29 | Corn | Iowa, Illinois, Indiana, eastern Nebraska, southern Minnesota and eastern South Dakota |
| 30 | Hay | Almost every county, darkest in Missouri, Kentucky, Tennessee, Oklahoma and Texas |
How Erin Davis made the maps
The maps are by Erin Davis, who publishes data visualisation at erdavis.com. In the post that accompanies them, she explains that she had been using the USDA Quick Stats database for a freelance project and wanted to see where specific crops are grown across the country [1].
She chose acres harvested as the measure for three reasons: it was available for a large number of crops, it is the same unit for every crop (unlike bushels, which do not translate easily into pounds), and it reflects how much physical land each crop takes up [1]. She pulled the county figures for every year from 2000 to 2021 using TidyUSDA, a wrapper for the R programming language, which matches the 2000-2021 average in the subtitle [1].
The post’s headline result is that hay is the most common crop in the US by acres harvested, followed by corn, soybeans and wheat [1]. That matches the order of the last four maps here, where wheat, corn and hay are the three most widespread crops.
What the pattern shows
Read from top to bottom, the grid moves from specialty crops to staples. The first maps are high value crops grown in only a few places: tree nuts, avocados and lemons in California, and oranges in Florida. Rice appears in only three areas, the Sacramento Valley, the lower Mississippi valley and southern Louisiana. Tobacco is concentrated in Kentucky, Tennessee and the Carolinas, and peanuts in the South East.
The middle maps show the northern Plains as a belt for small grains and pulses. Lentils, peas and barley all sit mainly in Montana and North Dakota, with sunflowers in the Dakotas. The last row shows the field crops that cover the most counties: wheat across Kansas, Oklahoma and the northern Plains, corn and soybeans in the Midwest, and hay almost everywhere.
Notes on this infographic
- The maps show the share of each county’s land used for a crop, not total production or value. A small, intensively farmed county and a large one with the same acreage will look different.
- The figures are averages for 2000 to 2021, so they show long run patterns rather than any single season.
- The graphic has no colour scale, so it shows where crops are concentrated but not the exact percentages.
- Only the 30 crops chosen by the creator are shown. Potatoes, for example, are not included, as one reader pointed out in the comments on her post [1].
Questions about US crops
What is the most grown crop in the US?
By acres harvested, hay. Erin Davis found that hay is the most common crop in the US, followed by corn, soybeans and wheat [1]. On these maps hay is the crop grown in the most counties.
Where is cotton grown in the US?
On the cotton map, the main areas are West Texas and south western Oklahoma, the Mississippi Delta in Arkansas, Mississippi and Louisiana, and a band through Alabama, Georgia, South Carolina and North Carolina, with smaller areas in Arizona and California.
Sources
- Erin Davis, Data Stuff, What’s the most common crop in the US? (7 June 2022), the creator’s post with this graphic and her method.
Last reviewed 29 October 2026
