I can't comment on the UK figures, but I suspect (and am happy to be corrected if anyone has the actual data) that a lot of the 36% of Scotland owned by the 103 people (if they are people as opposed to companies, the Crown and pension funds) is in Highland estates. Not fabulous smallholding land, generally, but the shooting does provide work for local people and income to the local economy.
I'm afraid just another example of how different Scotland is to England (not better or worse), and why we need our own governance. The stats below are some I gathered for a magazine article.
"Scotland has a land area of 7.7million hectares. Of that, only 8% is urban (compared to 21% in England); 67% is grass and rough grazing (36%); 7% crops and fallow (30%); 17% forest and woodland (8%); 2% other agricultural land (5%).
The population is 5,168,500 and rising – 8.5% of the UK population. There are, on average, 65 people per square kilometre (compared to 400 in England) and about 25% of the total Scottish populace lives in the Greater Glasgow conurbation, with much of the rest living in the Central Belt.
Around 86% of all the agricultural land in Scotland qualifies as “Less Favoured Area”, with much of that classified as “severely disadvantaged”. In the European Union, less-favoured area (LFA) is a term used to describe an area with natural handicaps (lack of water, climate, short crop season and tendencies of depopulation), or that is mountainous or hilly, as defined by its altitude and slope. Thirty five percent of agricultural land is in what was Highland Region, with 11% in Grampian and 10% in Tayside. Most of the “good” agricultural land is on the East coast – Grampian, Tayside, Fife, the Lothians and parts of the Borders. "
