New Hampshire might not be a big state, but how much land the largest landowner has might surprise you.
The World Population Review drew on 2025 data and found the biggest land owners in each state of the country, excluding government entities and non-profit organizations.
“Approximately 60% of land in the United States is privately owned, and just a few individuals and families control a significant proportion of this land,” they said.
Here’s what the World Population Review said.
Who is John Malone?
Owning 23,000 acres of land, the billionaire businessman John Malone is the largest landowner in New Hampshire, the Review said.
Worth $11.1 billion now, according to Forbes, Malone was the CEO of the cable TV company Tele-Communications Inc. in 1973. He sold the firm to AT&T for more than $50 billion in 1999.
The media mogul opened up about the New Hampshire land acquisition in a 2011 Forbes interview where he said that it included 980,000 acres in Maine and spans from New Hampshire to the border of New Brunswick.
“All of it will be operated as sustainable forestry,” Malone said to Forbes. “We’re trying to increase the value of what you don’t cut and trying to build a longer term asset. You cut down over-mature trees, you thin, which actually accelerates growth.”
The 84-year-old man is also the second-largest landowner in the United States, owning 2.2 million acres of land overall, according to Visual Capitalist. The largest landowner in the country is the Emmerson family, owning 2.4 million acres in the U.S.
Rin Velasco is a trending reporter. She can be reached at rvelasco@gannett.com.
This article originally appeared on Portsmouth Herald. Reporting by Rin Velasco.
