SEOUL, Feb. 27 (Xinhua) -- South Korea's arable land kept falling for the 11th consecutive year on lower consumption of rice, statistical office data showed Tuesday.

Nationwide arable land totaled 1,512,145 hectares in 2023, down 1.1 percent from the previous year, according to Statistics Korea.

The cultivated land continued to slide since 2013 as rice consumption had been on the decline for the past decades amid a shift in eating habits.

An increase in unused land, caused by the aging population, and the creation of industrial complex also contributed to the lower arable land.

The size of rice paddies dwindled 1.5 percent over the year to 763,989 hectares in 2023, accounting for 50.5 percent of the total.

Dry fields for agricultural production reduced 0.6 percent to 748,156 hectares last year.